The animal world, its romances and realities. A reading-book of zoölogy

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PPLETONS' HOME
READING BOOKS

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Cornell University
Library

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the Cornell University Library.

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the United States on the use of the text.

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Hppletons' 1bome IReabing Boofes

EDITED BY

WILLIAM T. HARRIS, A.M., LL. D.

UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION

DIVISION I

Natural History

The Bald Eagle

APPLETONS' HOME READING BOOKS

THE ANIMAL WORLD

its ROMANCES and REALITIES

A READING-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY

COMPILED AND EDITED BY

FRANK VINCENT, M. A.

AUTHOR OF ACTUAL AFRICA, AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA, ETC.

NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1898

Copyright, 1898,
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

INTRODUCTION' TO THE HOME BEADING
BOOK SEBIES BY THE EDITOB.

The new education takes two important direc-
tions — one of these is toward original observation,
requiring the pupil to test and verify what is taught
him at school by his own experiments. The infor-
mation that he learns from books or hears from his
teacher's lips must be assimilated by incorporating it
with his own experience.

The other direction pointed out by the new edu-
cation is systematic home reading. It forms a part of
school extension of all kinds. The so-called " Univer-
sity Extension " that originated at Cambridge and Ox-
ford has as its chief feature the aid of home reading by
lectures and round-table discussions, led or conducted
by experts who also lay out the course of reading.
The Chautauquan movement in this country prescribes
a series of excellent books and furnishes for a goodly
number of its readers annual courses of lectures. The
teachers' reading circles that exist in many States pre-
scribe the books to be read, and publish some analysis,
commentary, or catechism to aid the members.

Home reading, it seems, furnishes the essential
basis of this great movement to extend education

vi THE ANIMAL WORLD.

beyond the school and to make self -culture -a habit
of life.

Looking more carefully at the difference between
the two directions of the new education we can see
what each accomplishes. There is first an effort to
train the original powers of the individual and make
him self -active, quick at observation, and free in his
thinking. Next, the new education endeavors, by the
reading of books and the study of the wisdom of the
race, to make the child or youth a participator in the
results of experience of all mankind.

These two movements may be made antagonistic
by poor teaching. The book knowledge, containing as
it does the precious lesson of human experience, may
be so taught as to bring with it only dead rules of
conduct, only dead scraps of information, and nd
stimulant to original thinking. Its contents may be
memorized without being understood. On the other
hand, the self -activity of the child may be stimulated
at the expense of his social well-being — his originality
may be cultivated at the expense of his rationality.
If he is taught persistently to have his own way, to
trust only his own senses, to cling to his own opinions
heedless of the experience of his fellows, he is pre-
paring for an unsuccessful, misanthropic career, and
is likely enough to end his life in a madhouse.

It is admitted that a too exclusive study of the
knowledge found in books, the knowledge which is
aggregated from the experience and thought of other
people, may result in loading the mind of the pupil
with material which he can not use to advantage.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. Y ii

Some minds are so full of lumber that there is no
space left to set up a workshop. The necessity of
uniting both of these directions of intellectual activity
in the schools" is therefore obvious, but we must not,
in this plaee, fall into the error of supposing that it is
the oral instruction in school and the personal influ-
ence of the teacher alone that excites the pupil to ac-
tivity. Book instruction is not always dry and theo-
retical. The very persons who declaim against the
book, and praise in such strong terms the self -activity
of the pupil and original research, are mostly persons
who have received their practical impulse from read-
ing the writings of educational reformers. Yery few
persons have received an impulse from personal con-
tact with inspiring teachers compared with the num-
ber that have received an impulse from such books as
Herbert Spencer's Treatise on Education, Kousseau's
Emile, Pestalozzi's Leonard and Gertrude, Francis
"W. Parker's Talks about Teaching, Gr. Stanley
Hall's Pedagogical Seminary. Think in this connec-
tion, too, of the impulse to observation in natural sci-
ence produced by such books as those of Hugh Miller,
Faraday, Tyndall, Huxley, Agassiz, and Darwin.

The new scientific book is different from the old.
The old style book of science gave dead results where
the new one gives not only the results, but a minute
account of the method employed in reaching those re-
sults. An insight into the method employed in dis-
covery trains the reader into a naturalist, an historian,
a sociologist. The books of the writers above named
have done more to stimulate original research on the

viii THE ANIMAL WOKLD.

part of their readers than all other influences com-
bined.

It is therefore much more a matter of importance
to get the right kind of book than to get a living
teacher. The book which teaches results, and at the
same time gives in an intelligible manner the steps of
discovery and the methods employed, is a book
which will stimulate the student to repeat the ex-
periments described and get beyond these into fields
of original research himself. Every one remem-
bers the published lectures of Faraday on chemistry,
which exercised a wide influence in changing the style
of books on natural science, causing them to deal
with method more than results, and thus to train
the reader's power of conducting original research.
Robinson Crusoe for nearly two hundred years has
stimulated adventure and prompted young men to
resort to the border lands of civilization. A library
of home reading should contain books that stimulate
to self -activity and arouse the spirit of inquiry. The
books should treat of methods of discovery and evo-
lution. All nature is unified by the discovery of
the law of evolution. Each and every being in the
world is now explained by the process of development
to which it belongs. Every fact now throws light on
all the others by illustrating the process of growth in
which each has its end and aim.

The Home Reading Books are to be classed as
follows :

First Division. Natural history, including popular
scientific treatises on plants and animals, and also de-

EDITOR'S IKTRODUOTION. ix

scriptions of geographical localities. The branch of
study in the district school course which corresponds
to this is geography. Travels and sojourns in distant
lands; special writings which treat of this or that
animal or plant, or family of animals or plants ; any-
thing that relates to organic nature or to meteorol-
ogy, or descriptive astronomy may be placed in this
class.

Second Division. Whatever relates to physics or
natural philosophy, to the statics or dynamics of air or
water or light or electricity, or to the properties of
matter ; whatever relates to chemistry, either organic
or inorganic! — books on these subjects belong to the
class that relates to what is inorganic. Even the so-
called organic chemistry relates to the analysis of
organic bodies into their inorganic compounds.

Third Division. History and biography and eth-
nology. Books relating to the lives of individuals, and
especially to the social life of the nation, and to the
collisions of nations in war, as well as to the aid that
one gives to another through commerce in times of
peace; books on ethnology relating to the manners
and customs of savage pr civilized peoples ; books on
the primitive manners and customs which belong to
the earliest human beings' — books on these subjects be-
long to the third class, relating particularly to the hu-
man will, not merely the individual will but the social
will, the will of the tribe or nation ; and to this third
class belong also books on ethics and morals, and on
forms of government and laws, and what is included
under the term civics or the duties of citizenship.

X THE ANIMAL WORLD.

Fowth Division. The fourth class of books in-
cludes more especially literature and works that make
known the beautiful in such departments as sculpture,
painting, architecture and music. Literature and art
show human nature in the form of f eelings, emotions,
and aspirations, and they show how these feelings
lead over to deeds and to clear thoughts. This de-
partment of books is perhaps more important than
any other in our home reading, inasmuch as it teaches
a knowledge of human nature and enables us to un-
derstand the motives that lead our fellow-men to
action.

To each book is added an analysis in order to aid
the reader in separating the essential points from the
unessential, and give each its proper share of atten-
tion.

W. T. Hakeis.

Washington, D. C, November 16, 1896.

PKEFACE.

The warm public favor shown "The Plant World:
its Romances and Eealities. A Reading-Book of Bot-
any " has encouraged me to prepare a companion vol-
ume in zoology.

As with the former, the subject has been ap-
proached from as many conspicuous and character-
istic points as possible. The selections, moreover,
being entertaining as well as instructive, are designed
to awaken the curiosity of readers and stimulate them
to independent observation and investigation. Ap-
propriate extracts of verse have been introduced for
variety's sake, and especial care has been taken that
the illustrations shall be attractive and impressive.

Each selection having been accredited to its au-
thor (when known) and the work whence borrowed,
no further acknowledgment is thought necessary
here.

F. V.
New York, January, 1898.

CONTENDS.

PAGE

To the Cuckoo Wordsworth. 1

Spiders O. Hartwig. 2

The Whale Anonymous. 10

Strange Animal Friendships .... Anonymous. 15

To the Humblebee Emerson. 23

The Amphibians Louis Figuier. 25

Humming-Birds J. 0. Wood. 35

Wasps' Nests William Smellie. 38

The English Robin Harrison Weir. 44

'Living Corals William E. Damon. 45

Characteristics of the Dog .... Edward Jesse. 53

Buffon Anonymous. 61

The Lion's Ride .... Ferdinand Freiligrath. 66

Migrations of Birds F. A. Pouchet. 69

The Sea-Anemone Anonymous. 77

Some Curious Animal Companionships . Andrew Wilson. 84

To the Skylark Shelley. 92

Collecting in Ceylon .... Ernst Saeckel. 97

The Reindeer 6. Hartwig. 106

Giants and Pygmies . . . . F. A. Pouchet. 113

The Blood Horse Bryan W. Procter. 117

Edible Insects A. S. Packard. 118

The Devil-Pish Anonymous. 125

xiii

xiv THE ANIMAL WORLD.

PAGE

Intelligence of the Elephant . . John Selby Watson. 133

Philomela Matthew Arnold. 138

Baron Cuvier Anonymous. 139

White Elephants Frank Vincent. 146

Marvels of Insect Organization . . F. A. Pouchet. 153

The Cricket Cowper. 160

Concerning Serpents Elias Lewis. 161

The King of Birds <?. Hartwig. 169

The Chameleon Anonymous. 177

To an Insect Oliver Wendell Holmes. 180

The Hippopotamus O. Hartwig. 181

The Sponge Anonymous. 189

Birds-of-Paradise .... James H. Partridge. 192

The Owl Bryan W. Procter. 199

Microscopic Animalcules . . . . F. A. Pouchet. 200

The Metamorphosis of Insects . Worthington Hooker. 208

The Artifices of Animals . . . William Smellie. 216

The Housekeeper Charles Lamb. 224

The Task of Classification . . George Henry Lewes. 225

The Distribution of Animals .... James Orton. 232

The Tiger William Blake. 239

ILLUSTEATIONS.

FACING
PAGE

The Bald Eagle Frontispiece

A Camel Caravan, Algerian Sahara 2

An African Crocodile 25

A "Noble Fellow" 53

The "King of Beasts" 66

Reindeer in Norway 106

Giraffes, or Camelopards 114

The Indian Rhinoceros 117

Argonaut, or Paper Nautilus 125

The Sacred White Elephant 146

Chameleons 179

A Costa Rican Owl " . .199

A Moth Eleven Inches from Tip to Tip of Wing . . 210

Fallow Deer 216

The Kangaroo 232

The Royal Bengal Tiger 239

xv

THE ANIMAL WOELD.

TO THE CUCKOO.

1. blithe new-comer! I have heard,

1 hear thee and rejoice.

O cuckoo! shall I call thee bird,
Or but a wandering voice?

2. While I am lying on the grass

Thy two-fold shout I hear;
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
At once far off and near.

3. Though babbling only to the vale

Of sunshine and of flowers,
Thou bringest unto me a tale
Of visionary hours.

4. Thrice welcome, darling of the spring!

Even yet thou art to me
No bird, but an invisible thing,
A voice, a mystery;

2 1

THE ANIMAL WORLD.

The same whom in my school-boy days

I listened to; that cry
Which made me look a thousand ways,

In bush and tree and sky.

To seek thee did I often rove

Through woods and on the green;

And thou wert still a hope, a love;
Still longed for, never seen.

And I can listen to thee yet;

Can lie upon the plain
And listen, till I do beget

That golden time again.

O blessed bird! the earth we pace

Again appears to be
An unsubstantial, fairy place;

That is fit home for thee!

Wordsworth.

SPIDERS.

1. Incapable of muscular exertion, and of a
texture so loose and soft as to be torn to pieces or
crushed by the slightest degree of force, the spiders
seem exposed to every attack; and yet, helpless and
harmless as they appear to be, they are able to sub-
due animals much larger than themselves; for as a
compensation for their weakness, they are endowed

D

-SPIDERS. 3

with a most admirable industry, an exemplary pa-
tience, an indomitable perseverance, and the power
of secreting two liquids which fully answer all the
purposes of offense pr defense which their mode of life
requires. One of these liquids is a poison which at
once paralyzes the resistance of their prey, and acts
with the same instantaneous and fatal effect upon a
fly or a beetle as prussic acid on the human economy;
the other, a glutinous fluid, which, concreting in the
air, forms those silken threads which their wonder-
ful instinct turns to so many valuable uses.

2. The structure of the venomous apparatus of the
viper is justly admired, but that of the spider is a no
less beautiful piece of mechanism. It is by means
of the two mandibulce or forcipals with which their
mouth is armed, that they inflict their deadly wound.
These mandibles are each armed with a movable and
extremely sharp claw, near to the point of which is a
minute orifice, from which there escapes a drop of
poisonous liquid, that spreads itself over the whole
wound the instaat that it is inflicted. This orifice,
which is so extremely minute as to require a high
magnifying power for its perception, communicates
with a fine or narrow excretory canal situated in the
interior of the mandible, and given off from the true
secreting organ — a gland lodged in the interspace of
the muscles of the thorax, or breast, whose compres-
sion causes the immediate propulsion of the liquid.

3. A still more wonderful apparatus is that which
serves the spiders for the formation of their threads.
The spinnerets, or organs which emit the glutinous
fluid, are generally six in number, and situated at the

4 THE ANIMAL WOKLD.

posterior part of the body. Each of the spinnerets
is pierced by an infinite number of small holes, or be-
set with hairy appendages terminating in fine-drawn
points, from each of which there escape as many little
drops of a liquid, which becoming dry the moment it
is in contact with the air, forms so many delicate
threads. Immediately after the filaments have passed
out of the pores of the spinneret, they unite first to-
gether and then with those of the neighboring spin-
nerets to form a common thread; so that the thread
of the spider, which measures only 1 -4000th or even
l-8000th of an inch in diameter, is composed of an
immense number of minute filaments, perhaps several
thousand, of such extreme tenuity that the eye cannot
detect them until they are all twisted together into the
working thread.

4. But why this complicated process, it may be
asked; why this original excessive subdivision of a
filament, which, when complete, far surpasses in fine-
ness the finest thread which can possibly be spun
by machinery proceeding from- human hands?
The reason is obvious, for it was absolutely necessary
that as soon as the glutinous fluid emerged from the
body, it should instantly consolidate into a thread
firm enough to be worked or not to give way too sud-
denly under the spider's weight; and it is evident that
by its extreme division, so beautifully provided for
by the microscopical perforation of the sievelike spin-
nerets, the process of desiccation having a larger sur-
face to act upon, must be considerably hastened.
Thus there is nothing superfluous in this wonderful
mechanism, which, perfect in design and in every de-

SPIDERS. 5

tail, could only have been planned and formed by the
power and wisdom of God !

5. On examining the uses to which the spiders
put their admirable spinning organs, we shall find
in every case the workman worthy of his tools. When
a house or common spider is about to form a web, it
first selects some commodious and secure spot, where
insects appear to be in sufficient abundance. It then
distills a small drop of its glutinous liquid, and creep-
ing up the wall and spinning its thread as it proceeds,
darts itself in a very surprising manner to the oppo-
site station, where the other end of the web is to be
fastened. The first thread thus spun, drawn tight
and fixed at each end, the spider runs on it to
and fro, still assiduously employed in doubling and
strengthening it, as on its force the stability of the
whole fabric depends. The scaffolding being thus
completed, the spider draws a number of threads
parallel to and within the first in the same manner,
and then crosses them with others, the adhesive sub-
stance of which they are formed serving to bind
them together when newly spun.

6. This operation being completed, the indus-
trious little architect doubles and trebles the thread
that borders its web by opening all its papillae at
once, and so secures the edges as to prevent the wind
from displacing the work. The edges being thus
fortified, the retreat is next to be attended to; and
this is formed like a funnel, where the little work-
man lies concealed. To this there are two passages
or outlets, one above and the other below, very art-
fully contrived to allow the animal an opportunity

6 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

of making excursions in every direction. Frequently,
also, from the main web, there are several threads
extended at some distance on each side, like the cord-
age of a ship; this may be considered as the outworks
of the fortification, which whenever touched from
without, instantly communicate the intelligence by
the vibration of the net, and bid the lurking spider
prepare for attack or self-defense. If the insect im-
pinging happens to be a fly, the concealed assassin
instantly springs forward to pierce it with his mur-
derous mandibles; but if, on the contrary, he per-
ceives an enemy stronger than himself, he then, con-
sidering discretion to be the better part of valor, keeps
quietly within his fortress, and never stirs till the
storm is blown over. If the web has been destroyed,
the spider is able to renew it twice or thrice from its
glutinous stores; but after that its supplies are ex-
hausted, and then it must either die of hunger, or con-
quer another net, after having defeated the rightful
owner in mortal combat; or endeavor to find an empty
web, which is not so very difficult, as the young spiders
construct two nests.

7. The Garden Spider, which suspends its vertical
or oblique web in open space, works in a different
manner. It spins a large quantity of thread, which
floating in the air in various directions, happens from
its glutinous quality at last to adhere to some object
near it — a wall or the branch of a tree. The spider
is anxious to have one end of the line fixed, that it may
be enabled to secure and tighten the other; it accord-
ingly draws the line when thus fixed, and then by
passing or repassing it, strengthens the thread in

SPIDERS. 7

such a manner as to answer all its intentions. The
first cord being thus stretched, the spider walks along
a part of it and there fastens another; and drop-
ping from thence, affixes the thread to some solid
body below; then climbs up again and begins a
third, which it fastens by a similar contrivance.
Within this framework, which unites strength and
elasticity in a remarkable degree, and though yielding
to the slightest pressure immediately recovers its posi-
tion, the spider now begins to spin its beautiful
network, composed of a number of straight lines radi-
ating from a common center, and having a spiral line
wound regularly upon them.

8. The radiating lines are smooth, whereas the
spiral line is thickly studded with minute knobs, to
which the efficacy of the net is due, for they are
composed of a thick adhesive and viscid substance, and
serve to arrest the wings and legs of the insects that
happen to touch the net. It has been observed that
these viscid threads are of uniform thickness when
first spun, but that undulations soon appear in them,
and that the viscid matter soon accumulates in glob-
ules at regular intervals. As the spinnerets of the
garden-spider are of a different anatomical structure
— one pair presenting on its surface a number of small
perforations, the edges of which do not project, and
which therefore resemble a sieve, while the other is
studded with hollow tubes perforated at the extremity
— there is reason to suppose that each kind of thread
is produced by its own pair of spinnerets.

9. Another point in the construction of these
webs, so exactly true in all their proportions, is that

8 THE ANIMAL WOELD.

they are executed entirely by the sense of touch. The
eyes are situated on the front of the body and on the
upper surface, whereas the spinnerets are placed at
the very extremity of the body on the under-sur-
face, the threads being always guided by one of the
hind-legs, as may be seen by watching a garden-spider
in the act of building or repairing her web. To
place the fact beyond a doubt, spiders have been con-
fined in total darkness, and yet have spun webs as per-
fect as if they had been suspended in the open day-
light.

10. All spiders require patience, for they have
often a long time to wait before they entrap their
prey, and even the garden-spiders are subject to long
privations, in spite of their consummate skill. Con-
tinual stormy weather destroys their nests, and fre-
quently prevents their making a new one for many a
day; so that during the protracted period of involun-
tary fasting, not even a gnat can be caught to satisfy
their hunger. And when at length the new net is
suspended, a colossal wasp or huge bee comes flying
against it, and tears a prodigious breach in its delicate
texture. But the philosophic spider bears all the
buffetings of adverse fortune with exemplary patience,
and instead of breaking out into useless complaints,
immediately sets to work, and in a short time the
damage is fully repaired.

11. Besides the netmaking spider, there are many
others that are satisfied with less artificial snares for
entrapping their prey. Some draw their threads
over the surface of a leaf, and thus catch the insects
that heedlessly wander over the treacherous ground;

SPIDERS. 9

others spin them under stones or in the fissures of the
soil. In hollow walls, in the crevices of windows, the
ferocious Segestria conceals her body in a cylindrical
tube, open at both ends, from which only her forefeet
project, ready to rush upon her prey. She weaves
no web, but merely draws a few threads about the
hole in which she has fixed her abode. As soon as
an unwary fly touches one of them, she immediately
pounces upon it and seals its doom. Even wasps,
which other spiders are averse from attacking, either
on account of their sting or of the hardness of
their integuments, are fearlessly encountered and de-
feated by this formidable spider; for its breast and
feet are very hard, and the abdomen is covered with a
thick skin, so that it does not fear their sting, and its
strong and hard mandibles are able to crush their
horny coverings. So beautifully is the organization
of the spiders modified, according to the various prey
which has been destined for their use!

12. The Salticus scenicus, a common black-and-
white spider, which may always be seen in summer
upon walls and windows, disdains the use of any
snare, and, like the tiger, relies upon his spring alone
for the overpowering of his prey. When 'he spies a
fly at a distance, he approaches softly step by step, and
seems to measure his distance from it by the eye; then
if he judges that it is within reach, first fixing a thread
to the spot on which he is stationed by means of his
forefeet, which are much larger and longer than the
others, he darts on his victim with such rapidity and
so true an aim, that he seldom misses it. He is pre-
vented from falling by the thread just mentioned,

10 THE ANIMAL WOBLD.

which acts as a kind of anchor, and enables him to
recover his station.

G. Haktwig, " Harmonies of Nature."

THE WHALE.

1. By far the largest known inhabitant of the
ocean world is the whale, which, on account of its fish-
like shape, is usually thought of as belonging to the
fish creation. But the whale (including under this
name the baleen, or right whale, the sperm whale, and
the dolphin family, which covers the porpoise, gram-
pus, and narwhal) is a carnivorous mammal, which has
warm blood, and brings forth and suckles its young
as much as the cow or the sheep. The right and the
sperm whale both attain an enormous size, a length of
seventy-five feet being by no means uncommon.

2. Before the discovery of mineral oil, the whale
fisheries were so actively carried on from England
and America that the extirpation of this great creature
was threatened. About the year 1854 there were
nearly seven hundred vessels which plowed the seas
in every direction, from the frozen zones to the warm
waters of the Pacific, engaged in hunting this huge
game, and the product of a single year reached nearly
half a million barrels of oil. Now that the demand
for whale oil has so far decreased, the whale, which is
far less hunted, has increased again and will probably
soon reach its former standard of numbers.

THE WHALE. 11

3. The head of the whale constitutes about one
third of its length, and it is from this part that the
blubber is extracted. The mouth is of enormous
width, and the jaws are armed with plates of whale-
bone, as in the case of the right whale, or with sharp
conical teeth, as in the case of the sperm whale, which
is mostly found in the tropical or semi-tropical waters
of the Pacific. The presence of the whale is generally
made known, even when the animal is under water,
by the blowing of huge jets of water in the air. This
is caused by the expulsion of the volume of water,
which the whale takes in in swallowing its food,
through the blow-holes in the top of the head, and has
nothing to do with the proper function of breathing,
as has been sometimes supposed. It is from the
baleen, v or right whale, mostly found in the Arctic
and Antarctic regions, that the whalebone is derived;
this network of elastic material acting as a strainer for
its food, which consists of small swimming mollusks
and fish. Though the cavity of the mouth is large
enough to take in a ship's longboat, the gullet is not
larger than a man's fist, and cannot pass anything
much larger than a herring. The Greenland whale,
which is the largest of the baleens, has a tail about six
feet long and twenty-five feet wide. This is the ani-
mal's weapon, and it is used with terrible effect, fre-
quently crushing a whaleboat like an eggshell. This
whale swims ordinarily just below the surface at the
speed of about five miles an hour, though capable of
far greater velocity. Often they throw themselves
entirely out of water in sport, and one of their playful
tricks is to immerse the body perpendicularly, flapping

12 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

the tail on the water and making a noise perceptible
for several miles.

4. The animal can remain in the ocean depths for
half an hour, and when it comes to the surface it stays
several minutes blowing off the water. This is the
time utilized by the whale hunters, whose knowledge
of the creature's habits enables them to calculate the
time and place of its appearance very closely. All
whales show an extreme tenderness for their young,
and during nursing roll gently from side to side, so
that each of the offspring may have time to breathe.
The southern variety of the right whale does not
quite reach the size of its Arctic cousin.

5. In the sperm whale we find, instead of the
whalebone plates, a large number of sharp conical
teeth in the lower jaw which fit into cavities in the
upper jaw. The spermaceti, which is the most valu-
able find of the whale-fisher, is an oily fluid contained
in the enormous head, and on exposure to the air it
instantly hardens. In addition to the spermaceti, and
the oil, which often amounts to eighty barrels in a
single take, this whale yields the ambergris, a peculiar
product of the bowels, which is in so much demand by
the perfumers.

6. The sperm-whale fishery is far more dangerous
than that of the right whale. The sperm whale is
not only armed with an enormous tail, the stroke of
which has the force of a Nasmyth hammer, but its
formidable jaws are supplied with sharp teeth, with
which it literally chews a boat into splinters. A
whole shoal will sometimes come to the rescue of a
wounded companion, and then woe betide the unlucky

THE WHALE. 13

whalemen in such an unequal fight, for flight is useless
before the rush of these enraged monsters of the deep.
The accidents of the sperm-whale fishery furnish a
gloomy record, and there are well-authenticated cases
of ships having sprung a leak and suffered wreck
from the headlong charge of the sperm whale against
their sides.

7. The sperm-whale is distributed through all
the seas, but its home is principally in the South Pa-
cific. Schools of them,- consisting of from twenty to
fifty females and their young, with one or two old
males or bulls, are common. The males during the
time of breeding fight savagely, as their broken and
distorted jaws frequently testify. They find their
choicest food in the huge squids which abound in the
southern seas, and bite off the head as the choice mor-
sel. They also attack large sharks without fear, and
by their courage as well as their vast size justify their
right to be called the kings of the ocean. In the
times when whale-fishing was such an important in-
dustry, only the largest and most heavily manned
ships were sent in pursuit of the sperm whale, for its
capture was justly recognized as the most dangerous
and difficult of seafaring trades, as indeed it was also
the most remunerative. Whale-fishing has been so
often described that it is scarcely worth while to re-
peat the familiar story, except very briefly.

8. Instantly the lookout sings " There she
blows ! " the crews rush to the boats, which are
promptly lowered, each man taking his place with
the regularity of machinery. The boat-steerer, who
is also the harpooner, sits in the stern with his trusty

14: THE ANIMAL WORLD.

weapon in hand, the fathoms of line attached to it
coiled away in a tub at his feet. On approaching the
whale he rises, and, seizing the coil in his left, hurls
the harpoon with his right hand at the most vulnerable
part of the huge animal. Away the line goes like
lightning as the stricken whale dives into the depths,
and so swift is the paying out of it that water has to
be poured on to keep it from setting the boat on fire.
More than once a sailor's leg, caught in the whizzing
coil, has been cut off as with a cleaver.

9. When the whale rises again, comes the time
of special danger. The harpooner again hurls the
sharp steel, and the infuriated whale, with blows of
the terrible tail or snaps of the no less terrible jaws,
seeks to destroy its human foes. Unless the order
" Stern all ! " is instantly obeyed by backing the
boat out of near vicinity when the harpooner makes
his throw, the crew find themselves in the water, some
of them perhaps crushed or mangled to death. Often-
times the whale descends several hundred fathoms,
and remains under water half an hour. The signal of
victory is when the huge creature begins to spout great
jets of blood or bloody foam. The whaleman then
knows that the death agony is not far off, and puts an
end to the struggle by a thrust of the keen, slender
lance in a vital part. In addition to harpoon and
lance, the harpoon-gun is sometimes employed, this
weapon being used from a greater distance. There
is still another weapon, more deadly than the others,
the bomb-gun. The projectile in this case is so con-
trived that it explodes inside the doomed whale. A
few seconds after it is discharged, a dull, rumbling

STRANGE ANIMAL FRIENDSHIPS. 15

sound is heard, the whale makes a convulsive somer-
sault,, oftentimes entirely out of the water, and fre-
quently dies almost instantaneously. The whale is
often lost to its captors by sinking in its last agonies.
If not, the body is towed to the side of the ship, and
the disgusting work of butchering the animal, cutting
out its blubber, and trying out the oil begins. Ona
whale is generally thus disposed of before another
attack is made, though there may be large numbers in
daily view.

Anonymous, " A World of Wonders."

STRANGE ANIMAL FRIENDSHIPS.

1. Why married folk, so ill-mated as to agree only
to differ, should be said to lead a cat-and-dog life, is not
very clear, since those household pets, being intelli-
gent, affectionate, cheerful, and sociable creatures,
very frequently contrive to live harmoniously enough
together. The Aston Hall cat, that ate, associated,
and slept, with a huge bloodhound, only did what in-
numerable cats have done. Such companionships are
too common to be reckoned among strange animal-
friendships, such as that most singular instance of
attachment between two animals of opposite natures
and habits, related to Mr. Jesse by a person on whose
veracity he could depend. The narrator boasted of
the proprietorship of an alligator which had become
so tame that it would follow him up and down stairs;

16 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

while it was so fond of his cat's society that, when
she lay down before the fire, the alligator followed
suit, made a pillow of puss, and went off to sleep; and
when awake the reptile was only happy so long as puss
was somewhere near, turning morose and ill-tempered
whenever she left it to its own devices.

2. Many equine celebrities have delighted in fe-
line companions, following in this the example of their
notable ancestor, the Godolphin Arab, between whom
and a black cat an intimate friendship existed for
years, a friendship that came to a touching end; for,
when that famous steed died, his old companion would
not leave the body, and, when it had seen it put under-
ground, crawled slowly away to a hayloft, and, refus-
ing to be comforted, pined away and died.

3. One of Miss Braddon's heroines says: "It is
so nice to see a favorite horse looking over the door of
his loose-box, with a big tabby-cat sitting on the win-
dow-ledge beside him." The big tabby would prob-
ably prefer being on horseback, for puss takes very
kindly to the stable, and the horse takes as kindly to
puss. A cat belonging to the royal stables at Windsor
made herself so agreeable to one of the horses there
that, rather than put her to any inconvenience, he
would take his night's rest standing. This was held
detrimental to his health, and the stable authorities,
unable to hit upon any other plan, banished poor pussy
to a distant part of the country.

4. Mr. Huntington, of East Bloomfield, New
York, owns a thorough-bred horse named Narragan-
sett and a white cat. The latter was wont to pay a
daily visit to Narragansett's stall, to hunt up the mice

STRANGE ANIMAL FRIENDSHIPS. 11

and then enjoy a quiet nap. Mr. Huntington re-
moved to Rochester with his family, leaving the cat
behind; but she complained so loudly and so unceas-
ingly that she was sent on to the new abode. Her
first object was now to get somebody to interpret her
desires. At last her master divined them, and started
off with her to the barn. As soon as they were in-
side, the cat went to the horse's stall, made a bed near
his head, and curled herself up contentedly. When
Mr. Huntington visited the pair next morning, there
was puss close to Narragansett's feet, with a family of
five beside her. The horse evidently knew all about
it, and that it behooved him to take- heed how he
moved his feet. Puss afterward would go out, leav-
ing her little ones to the care of her friend, who would
every now and then look to see how they were getting
on. When these inspections took place in the
mother's presence, she was not at all uneasy, although
she showed the greatest fear and anxiety if any chil-
dren or strangers intruded upon her privacy.

5. A gentleman in Sussex had a cat which showed
the greatest affection for a young blackbird, which was
given to her by a stable-boy for food a day or two
after she had been deprived of her kittens. She
tended it with the greatest care; they became in-
separable companions, and no mother could show
a greater fondness for her offspring than she did for
the bird.

6. Lem-mery shut up a cat and several mice to-
gether in a cage. The mice in time got to be very
friendly, and plucked and nibbled at their feline
friend. When any of them grew troublesome, she

3

18 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

would gently box their ears. — A German magazine
tells of a Mr. Hecart who placed a tame sparrow under
the protection of a wild-cat. Another cat attacked
the sparrow, which was at the most critical moment
rescued by its protector. During the sparrow's sub-
sequent illness its natural foe watched over it with
great tenderness.— The same authority gives an in-
stance of a cat trained, like a watch-dog, to keep
guard over a yard containing a hare, and some spar-
rows, blackbirds, and partridges.

7. A pair of carriage-horses taken to water at a
stone trough, then standing at one end of the Man-
chester Exchange, were followed by a dog who was in
the habit of lying in the stall of one of them. As
he gamboled on in front, the creature was suddenly at-
tacked by a mastiff far too strong for his power of re-
sistance, and it would have gone hard with him but
for the unlooked-for intervention of his stable-com-
panion, which, breaking loose from the man who was
leading it, made for the battling dogs, and with one
well-delivered kick sent the mastiff into a cooper's cel-
lar, and then quietly returned to the trough and fin-
ished his drink. In very sensible fashion, too, did
Mrs. Bland's half-Danish dog Traveler show his af-
fection for his mistress's pet pony. The latter had
been badly hurt, and, when well enough to be turned
into a field, was visited there by its fair owner and
regaled with carrots and other delicacies; Traveler,
for his part, never failing to fetch one or two windfall
apples from the garden, laying them on the grass be-
fore the pony, and hailing its enjoyment of them with
the liveliest demonstrations of delight.

STRANGE ANIMAL FRIENDSHIPS. 19

8. That such relations should exist between the
horse and the dog seems natural enough; but that a
horse should he hail-fellow with a hen appears too
absurd to be true; yet we have Gilbert White's word
for it that a horse, lacking more suitable companions,
struck up a great friendship with a hen, and displayed
immense gratification when she rubbed against his
legs and clucked a greeting, while he moved about
with the greatest caution lest he might trample on his
" little, little friend."

9. Colonel Montague tells of a pointer which,
after being well beaten for killing a Chinese goose,
was further punished by having the murdered bird
tied to his neck — a penance that entailed his being
constantly attended by the defunct's relict. Whether
he satisfied her that he repented the cruel deed is
more than we know; but, after a little while the
pointer and the goose were on the best of terms, living
under the same roof, feeding out of one trough, oc-
cupying the same straw bed; and, when the dog went
on duty in the field, the goose filled the air with her
lamentations for his absence.

10. A Eew Zealand paper says: " There is a dog
at Taupo and also a young pig, and these two afford
a curious example of animal sagacity and confidence in
the bona fides of each other. These two animals live
at the native ' pah ' on the opposite side of Tapuae-
haruru, and the dog discovered some happy hunting-
grounds on the other side, and informed the pig. The
pig, being only two months old, informed the dog
that he could not swim across the river, which at that
spot debouches from the lake, but that in time he

20 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

hoped to share the adventures of his canine friend.
The dog settled the difficulty. He went into the
river, standing up to his neck in water, and crouched
down; the pig got on his back, clasping his neck
with his forelegs. The dog then swam across, thus
carrying his chum over. Regularly every morning
the two would in this way go across and forage around
Tapuaeharuru, returning to the pah at night; and,
if the dog was ready to go home before the pig, he
would wait till his friend came down to be ferried
over. The. truth of this story is vouched for by sev-
eral who have watched the movements of the pair
for some weeks past."

11. When Cowper cautiously introduced Puss — a
hare that had never seen a spaniel — to Marquis — a
spaniel that had never seen a hare — he discovered no
token of fear in the one, no sign of hostility in the
other, and the new acquaintances were soon in all re-
spects sociable and friendly — a proof, the poet thought,
that there was no natural antipathy between dog and
hare. Upon just as good grounds the same might be
inferred regarding dog and fox. We have read of a
tame fox hunting with a pack of harriers; and Mr.
Moffat, of Bearsley, Northumberland, owned one that
was excessively fond of canine society. In conse-
quence of detection following a raid on the poultry-
yard, Master Reynard was chained up in a grass area.
Whenever he caught sight of a dog coming his way,
he began fanning his tail, and, laying back his ears,
would strain desperately at the full length of his
tether, that he might smell at the mouth of the dog,
and use all his arts to induce him to have a romp, even

STRANGE ANIMAL FRIENDSHIPS. 21

though he had never set eyes on that especial dog he-
fore.

12. In 1822 some white rats were trapped in
Colonel Berkeley's stahles. Mr. Samuel Moss, of
Cheltenham, took a fancy to a youngster, and de-
termined to make a pet of him. He was soon tamed,
and christened Scugg. Then he was formally intro-
duced to a rat-killing terrier, a ceremony so well un-
derstood by Flora that she not only refrained from
assaulting the new-comer, hut actually constituted
herself his protectress, mounting guard over Scugg
whenever a stranger came into the room, growling,
snarling, and showing her teeth, until convinced he
had no evil intentions toward her protege. These
two strangely-assorted friends lapped from the same
saucer, played together in the garden, and, when
Flora indulged in a snooze on the rug, Scugg en-
sconced himself snugly between her legs. He would
mount the dinner-table and carry off sugar, pastry,
or cheese, while Flora waited below to share in the
plunder. One day a man brought Mr. Moss another
white rat, while the terrier and Scugg were racing
about the room. The stranger was shaken out of the
trap, and presently two white rats were scampering
across the floor pursued by Flora. The chase did not
last long, one of them quickly falling a victim to the
terrier's teeth, much to the experimentalist's alarm,
as his eyes could not distinguish one rat from the
other. Looking around, however, his mind was re-
lieved, for there in his corner was Scugg, with Flora
standing sentry before him — a position she held until
the man and the dead rat were out of the room.

22 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

When his master took a wife to himself, a new home
was found for Scugg; but the poor fellow died within
a month of his removal, and it is not improbable that
the separation from his canine friend was the primary
cause of the rat's untimely decease.

13. St. Pierre pronounced the mutual attachment
displayed between a lion at Versailles and a dog tor be
one of the most touching exhibitions Nature could
offer to the speculations of the philosopher. Such
exhibitions are by no means rare. Captive lords of
the forest and jungle have often admitted dogs to
their society and lived on affectionate terms with
them. Not long ago, an ailing lioness in the Dublin
Zoological Gardens was so tormented by the rats nib-
bling her toes that a little terrier was introduced into
the cage. His entrance elicited a sulky growl from
the invalid; but, seeing the visitor toss a rat in the
air and catch it with a killing snap as it came down,
she at once came to the sensible conclusion that the
dog's acquaintance was worth cultivating. Coaxing
the terrier to her side, she folded her paw round him
and took him to her breast; and there he rested every
night afterward, ready to pounce upon any rat daring
to disturb the slumbers of the lioness.

14. The last time we visited the lion-house of the
Eegent's Park Zoological Gardens, we watched with
no little amusement the antics of a dog, who was evi-
dently quite at home in a cage occupied by a tiger
and tigress. The noble pair of beasts were reclining
side by side, the tiger's tail hanging over the side of
their couch. The dog, unable to resist the tempta-
tion, laid hold of it with his teeth and pulled with a

TO THE HUMBLEBEE. 23

will; and, spite of sundry gentle remonstrances on
the part of the owner of the tail, persisted until he
elicited a very deep growl of disapproval. Then he
let go, sprang upon the tiger's back, curled himself up,
and went to sleep. Such friendships are, it must
be owned, liable to come to a tragic ending, like that
recorded by an ancient writer, who tells how a lion,
a dog, and a bear, lived together for a long time on the
most affectionate terms, until the dog, accidentally
putting the bear out of temper, had the life put out
of his body; whereupon Leo, enraged at losing his
favorite, set upon Bruin and made an end of him too.
Anonymous, " Chambers's Journal."

TO THE HUMBLEBEE.

1. Bubly, dozing humblebee!
Where thou art is clime for me;
Let them sail for Porto Bique,
Ear-off heats through seas to seek,
I will follow thee alone,

Thou animated torrid zone!
Zigzag steerer, desert cheerer,
Let me chase thy waving lines;
Keep me nearer, me thy hearer,
Singing over shrubs and vines.

2. Insect lover of the sun,
Joy of thy dominion!

24 THE ANIMAL "WORLD.

Sailor of the atmosphere;
Swimmer through the waves of air,
Voyager of light and noon,
Epicurean of June!
Wait, I prithee, till I come
Within earshot of thy hum, —
All without .is martyrdom.

3. When the south-wind, in May days,
With a net of shining haze
Silvers the horizon wall;

And, with softness touching all,
Tints the human countenance
With the color of romance;
And infusing subtle heats
Turns the sod to violets, —
Thou in sunny solitudes,
Hover of the underwoods,
The green silence dost displace
With thy mellow breezy bass.

4. Hot midsummer's petted crone,
Sweet to me thy drowsy tone
Tells of countless sunny hours,
Long days, and solid banks of flowers;
Of gulfs of sweetness without bound,
In Indian wildernesses found;

Of Syrian peace, immortal leisure,
Firmest cheer, and birdlike pleasure.

5. Aught unsavory or unclean
Hath my insect never seen;

THE AMPHIBIANS. 25

But violets, and bilberry bells,
Maple sap, and daffodels,
Grass with green flag half-mast high,
Succory to match the sky,
Columbine with horn of honey,
Scented fern, and agrimony,
Clover, catchfly, adder's-tongue,
And brier-roses, dwelt among:
All beside was unknown waste,
All was picture as he passed.
Wiser far than human seer,
Yellow-breeched philosopher,
Seeing only what is fair,

Sipping only what is sweet,
Thou dost mock at fate and care,

Leave the chaff and take the wheat.
When the fierce northwestern blast
Cools sea and land so far and fast, —
Thou already slumberest deep;
Woe and want thou canst outsleep;
Want and woe, which torture us,
Thy sleep makes ridiculous.

Emerson.

THE AMPHIBIANS.

1. Those geographers who divide the world into
land and sea overlook in their nomenclature the ex-
tensive geographical areas which belong permanently
to neither section — namely, the vast marshy regions

26 THE ANIMAL "WORLD.

on the margins of lakes, rivers, and ponds, which are
alternately deluged with the overflow of the adjacent
waters, or are parched from the exhalations produced
hy summer heat; regions which could only be in-
habited by beings capable of living on land or in water
— beings having both gills (through which they may
breathe in water) and lungs (through which they may
breathe on land). The first order of Reptiles pos-
sesses this character, and hence its name of Am-
phibia, from a Greek word meaning having a double
life.

2. All these creatures seem to have been well
known to the ancients. The monuments of the
Egyptians abound in representations of frogs, toads,
tortoises, and serpents. Aristotle was well acquainted
with their form, structure, and habits, even to their
reproduction. Pliny's description, however, presents
some amount of error and exaggeration. Darkness
envelops their history during the Middle Ages, from
which it gradually emerges in the early part of the
sixteenth century, when Belon and Rondeletius in
France, Salviani in Italy, and Conrad Gesner in
Switzerland, devoted themselves to the study of
natural history with great success. In the latter part
of the same century Aldrovandi appeared. During
fifty years he was engaged in collecting objects and
making drawings, which were published after his
death, in 1640, being edited by Professor Ambrossini,
of Bologna, the reptiles forming two volumes: in
these volumes, twenty-two chapters are occupied by
the serpents. But the first arrangement which can be
called systematic was that produced by John Ray, who

THE AMPHIBIANS. 27

based his system upon their mode of respiration, the
volume of their eggs, and their color. Numerous
systems have since appeared in France, Germany, and
England; but we shall best consult the interest of the
reader by briefly describing the classification adopted
by Professor Owen in his great work on the ver-
tebrata.

3. The two great classes Batrachians and Reptiles,
include a number of animals which are neither clothed
with hair, like the mammalia, covered with feathers
like the birds, nor furnished with swimming fins like
fishes. The essential character of reptiles is, that
they are either entirely or partially covered with scales.
Some of them — for instance, serpents: — move along
the ground with a gliding motion, produced by the
simple contact and adhesion of the ventral scales with
the ground. Others, such as tortoises, crocodiles, and
lizards, move by means of limbs; but these again are
so short, that the animals, with very few exceptions,
appear only capable of crawling slowly. Again,
some of this class are only furnished with feet in the
pectoral region; but this is the exception. The loco-
motive organs in serpents are the vertebral column,
with its muscles, and the stiff epidermal scutes crossing
the under surface of the body. " A serpent may,
however, be seen to progress," says Professor Owen,
" without any inflection, gliding slowly and with a
ghost-like movement in a straight line; and if the
observer have the nerve to lay his hand flat in the
reptile's course, he will feel, as the body glides over
the palm, the surface pressed as it were by the edges
of a close-set series of paper knives successively falling

28 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

flat after each application." In some, as in various
lizards, the limbs acquire considerable strength.

4. Batrachians, again, differ from most other
Eeptilia by being naked; moreover, most of them
undergo certain metamorphoses. In the first stage of
their existence they lead a purely aquatic life, and
breathe by means of gills, after the manner of fishes.
Young frogs, toads, and salamanders, which are then
called tadpoles, have at that stage no resemblance
whatever to their parents in structure. They are
little creatures with slender, elongated bodies, desti-
tute of feet and fins, but with large heads. In stag-
nant ponds they are frequently found in numbers,
where they live and breathe after the manner of
fishes. By degrees, however, they are transformed,
their limbs and air-breathing lungs commence to de-
velop, when they disappear, till the day arrives that
they find themselves organized for another existence,
when they leave their liquid retreat and betake them-
selves to dry land.

5. The respiration of reptiles and some of the
batrachians, like that of birds and mammals, is aerial
and pulmonary, but it is much less active. Ba-
trachians have, in addition, a very considerable cutane-
ous respiration. Some of these, such as toads, absorb
more oxygen through the skin than by the lungs.
Their circulation is imperfect, the structure of the
heart only representing one ventricle; the blood, re-
turning after a partial regeneration in the lungs,
mingles with that which is not yet revivified: this
mixed fluid is launched out into the economic system
of the animal. Thus reptiles and batrachians are said

THE AMPHIBIANS. 29

to be cold-blooded animals, more especially the former,
in which, the respiratory organs, which are a constant
source of interior heat, are only exercised very feebly.
Owing to this low temperature of their bodies, reptiles
affect warm climates, where the sun exercises its power
with an intensity unknown in temperate regions ;
hence it is that they abound in the warm latitudes of
Asia, Africa, and America, while comparatively few
are found in Europe. This is also the cause of their
becoming torpid in our latitudes during the winter,
not having sufficient heat in themselves to produce re-
action against the external cold, reawakening only
when the temperature permits of their activity. Ser-
pents, lizards, tortoises, frogs, are all subjected to this
law of their being. Some hibernate upon the earth,
under heaps of stone, or in holes; others in mud at
the bottom of ponds. The senses are very slightly
developed in these animals; those of touch, taste, and
smell being very imperfect; hearing scarcely so much
so; but not so with sight, for their large eyes are pro-
vided with contractile eyeballs, which enables certain
reptiles — such, for instance, as the geckos — to distin-
guish objects in the dark. Most reptiles and ba-
trachians are almost devoid of voice; serpents, how-
ever, utter a sharp hissing sound, and crocodiles howl;
again geckos are particularly noisy, and frogs possess
the well-known croak.

6. Reptiles and batrachians can, it is true, be
tamed; but although they seem to know individuals,
they do not appear susceptible of affection; this may
be attributed to the slight compass of their brain, as
also that insensibility to pain which enables them to

30 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

support mutilations that would prove immediately
fatal to other animals. For instance, the common
lizard frequently breaks its tail in its abrupt move-
ments. Nor does this curtailment affect him; for
complaisant Nature renews its growth as often as it
becomes necessary. In the crocodiles and monitor
lizards, however, a mutilated part is not renewed, and
the renovated tails of other lizards do not develop
bone. In some instances, the eyes may be put out,
or the animal otherwise seriously injured. In the
course of time, without the animal having ceased to
perform any of its functions, they will be renewed.
A tortoise will continue to live and walk for six months
after it is deprived of its brain; and a salamander
has been seen in a very satisfactory state, although
its head was, so to speak, isolated from the trunk by a
ligature tied tightly round its neck.

7. There is another curious peculiarity in the his-
tory of reptiles and batrachians: each year, as they
awake from their state of torpor, they slough their old
covering, or, in other words, cast their skin. Their
growth is slow, and continues almost through the
whole duration of their existence; they are, moreover,
endowed with remarkable longevity. This is not very
astonishing, if we consider that (at least in our lati-
tudes) they remain torpid for several months yearly;
thus using up less of the materials of life, and, conse-
quently, ought to attain a more advanced age. The
activity of organization in reptiles and batrachians is
so slight that their stomachs feel less of the exigencies
of hunger; hence they rarely take nourishment, and
digest their food very slowly. With the exception

THE AMPHIBIANS. 31

of the land tortoises, whose regimen is herbivorous,
most reptiles feed on living prey. Some, such as
lizards, frogs, and toads, subsist on worms, insects,
small terrestrial or aquatic mollusks; others, such as
ophidians and crocodiles, attack birds, and even mam-
mals. Large serpents, owing to the distensibility of
their oesophagus, frequently swallow animals broader
than themselves at the moment of seizing their prey.

8. Reptiles, whether batrachians, ophidians or
chelonians, are mostly oviparous, sometimes ovo-vivip-
arous, and generally very prolific. The eggs of
some are covered with a calcareous envelope, as in the
turtle. Sometimes they are soft, and analogous to
the spawn of fish, as in the batrachians. Most species
do not hatch their eggs by sitting upon them, but bury
them in the sand, trusting to the heat of the sun,
which hatches them in due course. To this the
pythons form a partial exception. Batrachians con-
tent themselves with diffusing their spawn or eggs in
marshy waters or ponds, or they bear them on their
backs until the time of hatching approaches. On
leaving the egg young tortoises have to provide imme-
diately for their own wants, for the parents are not
present to bring them nourishment or to defend them
against enemies. Parental affection, so manifest
among the superior animals, does not exist in oviparous
species, except in those that hatch their eggs in the
body of the mother. The young are consequently,
so to speak, produced in a living state, and fully pre-
pared for the battle of life. The loves of these ani-
mals present none of that character of mutual affection
and tender sympathy which distinguishes the mam-

32 ■ THE ANIMAL WORLD.

malia and birds. When they have insured the per-
petuity of their species, they separate, and betake
themselves again to their solitary existence.

9. Some reptiles attain dimensions truly extraor-
dinary, which render them most formidable. Tur-
tles are met with which weigh as much as sixteen
hundred pounds; and carapaces have been found that
measured as much as six feet in length. Although
the average length of the crocodile is about eight to
nine feet, they have been seen twenty-four and even
thirty feet long.

10. In tropical regions enormous serpents are
found, which are nearly a foot in diameter; and some
are reported to have almost reached forty feet in
length. Roman annals mention one forty feet long,
which Eegulus encountered in Africa during the
Punic Wars, and which is fabulously said to have
arrested the march of his army. These gigantic rep-
tiles are not, however, enemies which man has most
cause to fear, for their very size draws attention to
them, enabling them to be avoided. Not so with
the more minute poisonous snakes, which glide after
their prey without attracting attention, strike it, and
puncture the wound with venom, which produces
death with startling rapidity. Doubtless this fatal
power was the cause of barbarous nations of old wor-
shiping certain reptiles; even at the present time these
animals are venerated by some barbarous races of men.

11. The whole class of reptiles are for the most
part calculated to inspire feelings of repugnance, and
such has been the prevailing sentiment in all ages.
There are people who cannot suppress a movement

THE AMPHIBIANS. 33

of fright at the sight of an ordinary snake, lizard, or
frog, notwithstanding that they are most inoffensive
animals. Several causes concur to produce this aver-
sion. In the first place the low temperature of their
bodies, contact with which communicates an involun-
tary shudder in the person who touches them; then
the moisture which exudes from the skins of frogs,
toads, and salamanders, their fixed and strong gaze,
all combine to impress one painfully, while the odor
which some of them exhale is so disgusting, that it
has often been known to produce fainting; add to this
the fear of a real though often exaggerated danger,
and we shall have the secret of the sort of instinctive
horror which is felt by many people at the sight of
most reptiles. Nevertheless, the poisonous species
are exceptional among reptiles, and among batra-
chians there are none, for it is altogether a mistake
to take for venom the fluid which the toad discharges.
Although these animals are repulsive in appearance,
we can nevertheless recognize their services in the
economy of Nature. Inhabitants of slimy mud and
fetid swamps, they are incessantly destroying worms
and insects which abound there, and which ultimately
would become most injurious to animal and vegetable
life; while, in their turn, they find implacable ene-
mies in the birds, which check an excessive increase in
their race. In this manner the equilibrium of Nature
is maintained.

12. Some of the animals which now occupy our

attention render a direct service to man, being utilized

by him for food. Frogs are eaten in the south of

France, Italy, and many other countries; and adders,

4

34 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

under the name of " hedge-eels," are not despised in
some localities. We know the favor in which turtles
are held by us, where soup made from them is con-
sidered a dish only fit for merchant princes. In other
countries, iguanas, crocodiles, and even serpents are
eaten. But viper-broth, which was known to Hip-
pocrates, we believe, is not to be found now as an
article of food.

13. As we have already remarked, the peculiar
nature of their organization leads reptiles and batra-
chians to seek the warmer regions of the earth. It
is in those regions that they attain the enormous
dimensions which distinguish certain serpents; there,
too, they secrete their most subtle poisons and display
the most lively colors, which, if less rich than those of
birds and fishes, are not less startling in effect. Many
serpents and lizards glitter with radiant metallic re-
flections; and some of them present extremely varied
combinations of color. Chameleons are found in the
same localities, but in the Old World only; these and
some other lizards are remarkable for changing their
color, a phenomenon which is also seen among the
frogs, but in a smaller degree.

Louis Fiquier, " Reptiles and Birds."

HUMMING-BIKDS. 35

HUMMING-BIRDS.

1. The wonderful little Humming-Birds are only
found in America and the adjacent islands, where
they take the place of the sun-birds of the Old World.
It is rather remarkable that, as yet, no humming-birds
have been discovered in Australia.

2. These little winged gems are most capricious
in their choice of locality, some being spread over a
vast range of country, while others are confined within
the limit of a narrow belt of earth hardly more than
a few hundred yards in width, and some refuse to
roam beyond the narrow precincts of a single moun-
tain. Some of these birds are furnished with com-
paratively short and feeble wings, and, in consequence,
are obliged to remain in the same land throughout the
year, while others are strong of flight, and migrate
over numerous tracts of country. They gather most
thickly in Mexico and about the equator, the number
of species diminishing rapidly as they recede from the
equatorial line.

3. The name of humming-birds is given to them on
account of the humming or buzzing sound which they
produce with their wings, especially while they are
hovering in their curious fashion over a tempting
blossom, and feeding on its contents while suspended
in air.

4. The legs of these birds are remarkably weak
and delicate, and the wings are proportionately strong,
a combination which shows that the creatures are in-

36 THE ANIMAL WOKLD.

tended to pass more of their time in the air than on
foot. Even when feeding they very seldom trouble
themselves to perch, but suspend themselves in the
air before the flower on which they desire to operate,
and with their long slender tongues are able to feed
at ease without alighting. In the skeleton, especially
in the shape of the breastbone and wings, as well as
in the comparative small size of the feet, the hum-
ming-birds bear some analogy to the swifts, and, like
those birds, never lay more than two eggs.

5. The flight of these birds is inconceivably rapid,
so rapid, indeed, that the eye can not follow it when
the bird puts forth its full speed; and with such won-
derful rapidity do the little sharp-cut wings beat the
air, that their form is quite lost, and while the bird is
hovering near a single spot, the wings look like two
filmy gray fans attached to the sides. While dart-
ing from one flower to another the bird can hardly be
seen at all, and it seems to come suddenly into exist-
ence at some spot, and as suddenly to vanish from
sight. Some humming-birds are fond of towering to
a great height in the air, and descending from thence
to their nests or to feed, while others keep near the
ground, and are seldom seen at an elevation of many
yards.

6. The food of the humming-birds is much the
same as that of the honeysuckers, except, perhaps, that
they consume more honey and fewer flies. Still, they
are extremely fond of small insects, and if kept away
from this kind of diet soon pine away, in spite of un-
limited supplies of syrup and other sweet food.

7. In order to enable the humming-bird to extract

HUMMING-BIRDS. 37

the various substances on which it feeds from the in-
terior of the flowers, the beak is always long and
delicate, and in shape is extremely variable, probably
on account of the particular flower on which the bird
feeds. In some instances the bill is nearly straight,
in others it takes a sharp sickle-like downward curve,
while in some it possesses a double curve. The gen-
eral form of the beak is, however, a very gentle down-
ward curve, and in all instances it is pointed at its
extremity. At the base the upper mandible is wider
than the lower, which is received into its hollow.
Their nostrils are placed at the base of the beak, and
defended by a little scale-like shield.

8. The plumage is very closely set on the body,
and is possessed of a metallic brilliancy in every spe-
cies, the males being always more gorgeously deco-
rated than their mates. The tail is composed of ten
feathers, although in several species some of the
feathers are so slightly developed that they can hardly
be seen under the larger rectrices, and, in consequence,
their owner has been set down as possessing only six
feathers in its tail.

9. The tongue is a very curious structure, being
extremely long, filamentous, and double nearly to its
base. At the throat it is taken up by that curious
forked bony structure called the hyoid bone, the forks
of which are enormously elongated, and, passing under
the throat and round the head, are terminated upon
the forehead. By means of this structure the hum-
ming-bird is enabled to project the tongue to a great
distance from the bill, and to probe the inmost recesses
of the largest flowers. The common woodpecker has

38 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

a very similar description of tongue, and employs it
in a like manner.

10. In their habits the humming-birds are mostly
diurnal, although many species are only seen at dawn
and just after sunset. Many, indeed, live in such
dense recesses of their tropical woods, that the beams
of the sun never fairly penetrate into their gloomy
depths, and the humming-bird dwells in a permanent
twilight beneath the foliage.

J. G. Wood, " The New Illustrated Natural History."

WASPS' NESTS.

1. Wasps, like bees, associate in great numbers,
and construct, with much dexterity and skill, a com-
mon habitation. Their architecture, like that of
the honey-bee, is singular and worthy of admiration;
but the materials employed furnish neither honey nor
wax. Impelled by an instinctive love of posterity,
they, with great labor, skill and assiduity construct
combs, which are likewise composed of hexagonal or
six-sided cells. Though these cells are not made of
wax, they are equally proper for the reception of eggs,
and for affording convenient habitations to the worms
which proceed from them, till their transformation
into wasps.

2. In general, the cells of the wasps are formed
of a kind of paper, which, with great ingenuity, is
fabricated by the animals themselves. The number

WASPS' NESTS. 39

of combs and cells in a wasp's nest is always propor-
tioned to the number of individuals associated. Dif-
ferent species choose different situations for building
their nests. Some expose their habitations to all the
injuries of the air; others prefer the trunks of de-
cayed trees; and others, as the common kind, of
which we are principally treating, conceal their nests
under ground. The hole which leads to a wasp's nest
is about an inch in diameter. This hole is a kind of
gallery mined by the wasps, is seldom in a straight
line, and varies in length from half a foot to two feet,
according to the distance of the nest from the sur-
face of the ground. When exposed to view, the whole
nest appears to be of a roundish form, and sometimes
about twelve or fourteen inches in diameter. It is
strongly fortified all round with walls or layers of
paper, the surface of which is rough and irregular.
In these walls, or rather in this external covering,
two holes are left for passages to the combs. The
wasps uniformly enter the nest by one hole, and go
out by the other, which prevents any confusion or
interruption to their common labors.

3. Upon removing the external covering, we per-
ceive that the whole interior part consists of several
stories or floors of combs, which are parallel to each
other, and nearly in a horizontal position. Every
story is composed of a numerous assemblage of hexag-
onal cells, very regularly constructed with a matter
resembling ash-colored paper. These cells contain
neither wax nor honey, but are solely destined for con-
taining the eggs, the worms which are hatched from
them, the nymphs, and the young wasps till they are

40 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

able to fly. Wasps' nests are not always composed of
an equal number of combs. They sometimes consist
of fifteen, and sometimes of eleven only. The combs
are of various diameters. The first, or uppermost, is
often only two inches in diameter, while those of the
middle sometimes exceed a foot. The lowest are
also much smaller than the middle ones. All these
combs, like so many floors or stories ranged in a par-
allel manner above each other, afford lodging to pro-
digious numbers of inhabitants. Reaumur computed,
from the number of cells in a given portion of comb,
that, in a medium-sized nest, there were at least ten
thousand cells. This calculation gives an idea of the
astonishingly prolific powers of these insects, and the
vast numbers of individuals produced in a single sea-
son from one nest; for every cell serves as a lodging
to no less than three generations. Hence a moder-
ate-sized nest gives birth annually to thirty thousand
young wasps.

4. The different stories of combs are always about
half an inch high, which leaves free passages to the
wasps from one part of the nest to another. These
intervals are so spacious, that, in proportion to the
bulk of the animals, they may be compared to great
halls or broad streets. Each of the larger combs is
supported by about fifty pillars, which at the same
time give solidity to the fabric, and greatly orna-
ment the whole nest. The lesser combs are sup-
ported by the same ingenious contrivance. These
pillars are coarse, and of a roundish form. Their bases
and capitals, however, are much larger in diameter
than the middle. By the one end they are attached to

WASPS' NESTS. 41

the superior comb, and by the other to the inferior.
Thus between two combs there is always a species of
rustic colonnade. The wasps begin at the top, and
build downward. The uppermost and smallest comb
is first constructed. It is attached to the superior
part of the external covering. The second comb is
fixed to the bottom of the first; and in this manner
the animals proceed till the whole operation is com-
pleted. The connecting pillars are composed of the
same kind of paper as the rest of the nest. To allow
the wasp entries into the void spaces, roads are left
between the combs and the external envelope or cover-
ing.

5. A general idea of this curious edifice having
been given, it is next natural to inquire how the wasps
build, and how they employ themselves in their
abodes. But as all these mysteries are performed
under cover, it required much industry and attention
to discover them. By the ingenuity and persever-
ance of M. de Reaumur, however, we are enabled to
explain some parts of their internal economy and
manners. This indefatigable naturalist contrived to
make wasps, like. the honey-bees, lodge and work in
glass hives. In this operation he was greatly assisted
by the ardent affection which these animals have for
their offspring; for he found that, though the nest
was cut in different directions, and though it was ex-
posed to the light, the wasps never deserted it, nor
relaxed in their attention to their young.

6. Immediately after a wasps' nest has been trans-
ported from its natural situation, and covered with a
glass hive, the first operation of the insects is to repair

42 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

the injuries it has suffered. "With wonderful activ-
ity they carry off all the earth and foreign bodies that
may have accidentally been conveyed into the hive.
Some of them occupy themselves in fixing the nest
to the top and sides of the hive by pillars of paper,
similar to those which support the different stories or
strata of combs; others repair the breaches it has
sustained; and others fortify it by augmenting con-
siderably the thickness of its external cover. This
external envelope is an operation peculiar to wasps.
Its construction requires great labor; for it fre-
quently exceeds an inch and a half in thickness, and
is composed of a number of strata or layers as
thin as paper, between each of which there is a void
space. This cover is a kind of box for inclosing the
combs, and defending them from the rain which
might otherwise penetrate them. For this purpose
it is admirably adapted. If it were one solid mass,
the contact of water would penetrate the whole and
reach the combs. But to prevent this fatal effect,
the animals leave considerable vacuities between the
vaulted layers, which are generally fifteen or sixteen
in number. By this ingenious piece of architecture,
one or two layers may be moistened with water, while
the others are not in the least affected.

7. The materials employed by wasps in the con-
struction of their nests are very different from those
made use of by the honey-bee. Instead of collecting
the farina of flowers, and digesting it into wax, the
wasps gnaw with their two fangs, which are strong and
serrated, small fibers of wood from the sashes of win-
dows, the posts of espaliers, garden doors, etc., but

"WASPS' NESTS. 43

never attempt growing or green timber. These fibers,
though very slender, are often a line, or a twelfth part
of an inch, long. After cutting a certain number of
them, the animals collect them into minute bundles,
transport them to their nests, and, by means of a glu-
tinous substance furnished from their own bodies,
form them into a moist and ductile paste. Of this sub-
stance, or papier mache, they construct the external
cover, the partitions of the nest, the hexagonal cells,
and the solid columns which support the several layers
or stories of combs.

8. The constructing of the nest occupies a com-
paratively small number of laborers. The others are
differently employed. Here it is necessary to re-
mark, that the republics of wasps, like those of the
honey-bees, consist of three kinds of flies, males, fe-
males, and neuters. Like the bees, also, the number
of neuters far surpasses that of both males and fe-
males. The greatest quantity of labor is devolved
upon the neuters; but they are not, like the neuter
bees, the only workers; for there is no part of their
operations which the females, at certain times, do not
execute. Neither do the males, though their industry
is not comparable to that of the neuters, remain en-
tirely idle. They often occupy themselves in the in-
terior part of the nest. The greatest part of the
labor, however, is performed by the neuters. They
build the nest, feed the males, the females, and even
the young. But while some of the neuters are em-
ployed in these different operations, the others are
abroad in hunting parties. Some attack with intrepid-
ity live insects, which they sometimes carry entire to

44 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

the nest; but they generally transport the abdomen or
belly only. Others pillage butchers' stalls, from which
they often arrive with a piece of meat larger than the
half of their own bodies. Others resort to gardens,
and suck the juices of fruits. When they return to
the nest, they distribute a part of their plunder to the
females, to the males, and even to such neuters as have
been usefully occupied at home. As soon as a neuter
enters the nest it is surrounded by several wasps, to
each of whom it freely gives a portion of the food it
has brought. Those who have not been hunting for
prey, but have been sucking the juices of fruits,
though they seem to return empty, fail not to regale
their companions; for they station themselves upon
the upper part of the nest, and discharge from their
mouths two or three drops of a clear liquid, which
are immediately swallowed by the domestics.

William Smellie, " The Philosophy of Natural History."

THE ENGLISH KOBLTST.

1. See yon robin on the spray;

Look ye how his tiny form
Swells, as when his merry lay
Gushes forth amid the storm.

2. Though the snow is falling fast,

Speckling o'er his coat with white,-
Though loud roars the chilly blast,
And the evening's lost in night, —

LIVING CORALS. 45

3. Yet from out the darkness dreary-

Cometh still that cheerful note;
Praiseful aye, and never weary,
Is that little warbling throat.

4. Thank him for his lesson's sake,

Thank God's gentle minstrel there,
Who, when storms make others quake,
Sings of days that brighter were.

Harrison Weir.

LIVING CORALS.

" We wandered where the dreamy palm
Murmured above the sleeping wave,
And through the waters clear and calm
Looked down into the coral cave."

1. Among the advantages of travel may well be
reckoned the memories of scenes passed through — the
adventures and labors shared in common with sympa-
thizing companions — especially when the object of
the journey was the observation and study of natural
productions, fauna or flora, on land, river, or sea.
Every practical marine zoologist must have shared in
the keen delight and curious expectancy of watching
the rise of the dredging-machine, as it approached the
deck from its foraging excursion below. How we
hoped to find this or that — some particular specimen
upon which we had set our hearts; and with what
disappointment we turned away if nothing of value

46 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

was discovered, or only the commonest specimens ap-
peared, of which we already had abundance! But
did the eye perceive some unknown form, with what
ardor it was secured, and yet with what gentleness
and delicacy it was handled and inspected! — for ex-
perience had taught us that some of the most beautiful
marine forms are not to be touched with impunity,
many of them possessing stinging qualities, while
others, like the brittle star, have the inconvenient
habit of dismembering themselves if displeased or
frightened.

2. There are many favorable locations for find-
ing varied and curious specimens, such as the waters
of the Mediterranean, the shores of Japan, and the
coral islands of the Pacific; but, for those who can-
not make extended voyages, there is perhaps no better
hunting-ground for marine curiosities than the Ber-
muda islands. One reason for this probably is, that
in favorable years the Gulf Stream throws many
exotics on its shores; but a more permanent cause
may be found in the fact that this group of islands
is entirely organic, and that both fossil and living
specimens of corals, mollusca, annelids, and wondrous-
]y beautiful fishes, may be found in abundance. But
it is of coral alone that we now design to speak, and
this interesting production may also be sought among
the Florida Keys.

3. It is not strange that so curious and beautiful
an object as coral should have early attracted the at-
tention both of naturalists and ordinary travelers.
Even the common seaman likes to take home a piece
of coral to adorn his humble abode, while learned

LIVING CORALS. 47

scientists have reasoned and argued with pertinacity
and zeal over the mystery of its construction. The
Greeks named it the " Daughter of the Sea," but are
not known to have investigated its nature or mode of
growth. For a long period it was the subject of curi-
ous conjectures, such as that it was a vegetable forma-
tion, and again that it was soft while in the water;
and only hardened on exposure to the air; and even
to the present time there remain in the popular con-
ception several curious errors in regard to its growth.
Indeed, we have heard public speakers, clergymen
and others, in pursuit of an illustration, speak of " the
wonderful labors of the coral insect! " In this short
phrase are involved two fundamental errors; for the
coral-producers are neither laborers nor insects.

4. Another very common mistake is the suppo-
sition that they are exceedingly minute — even mi-
croscopic — in size. This is far from being the case.
Having had several varieties under observation in my
aquarium for years, I can assure the reader that they
are not only large enough to be plainly seen by the
naked eye, but they sometimes elongate themselves
nearly an inch above the upper edge of their cell,
measuring one-third of an inch in diameter.

5. But some one may ask, " If the coral-producers
are not insects, what are they? " "We answer, mainly
polyps, with some hydroids and soft mollusks of the
lowest class. These are all soft-bodied organisms,
consisting of many varieties, having the organic func-
tion of secreting carbonate of lime, which, with some
other ingredients, as silica and small portions of sand,
composes the hard substance called coral.

48 THE ANIMAL WOELD.

6. The body of the polyp consists of a cylindrical
skin, with an inside sac, which is the stomach, and
is furnished at the top with thread-like appendages,
with which it draws in its food. Whatever it does
not wish to retain in the stomach it rejects by the
mouth, having no other resource, as the lower end of
the polyp is affixed to the stony substance. When
expanded, these thread-like tentacles around the
mouth give them a flower-like appearance. It is be-
tween the outer skin and the sac or stomach that the
limestone is secreted which forms the coral substance.

7. It will thus be seen that the polyp does not
gather or collect from external sources the material
of the coral — does not in any correct sense work or
" build " any more than a tree may be said to work as
it grows into wood. Nature has simply provided that,
in receiving its food, the polyp selects from the in-
gredients of the sea-water that which is capable of
being reduced by simple functional processes into
coral; just as a plant selects and secretes from the
earth that kind of nourishment which makes stems,
leaves, and buds. .

8. Each mature polyp, when fixed in its cell, may
be considered as resting upon the tombs of its ances-
tors; and, when it dies, its descendants will repeat
the process over its remains, and its own body, with-
in which its share of coral has been secreted, will be
the base for a new living descendant.

9. The cells of the coral colony are not retreats
into which the polyps come and go, like a bird build-
ing its nest, but part and parcel of the creature; just
as much so as are the bones belonging to a human body

LIVING CORALS. 49

— with this difference, that in the case of the polyp
the stony part (representing the osseous structure in
man) is all at the lower portion, while the upper part
is soft and flexible; but in a healthy condition they
are inseparably combined;

10. It is well known that the power of secretion
is inherent in all living tissue, while its matter and
form are varied in every possible degree, from the
animalcule to the superior mammal. This power or
faculty is possessed in full perfection by what we call
the lower forms of life, and it is among these we find
the stone-makers; for the simplicity of their structure
is such that they may be nearly all stone while yet
the small portion of vital substance carries on the
processes 'of nutrition and growth.

11. It is not generally known, outside of the circle
of naturalists and the scientists connected with the
Coast Survey service, that coral grows on our own
North Atlantic shores, the popular belief being that
all corals are to be sought for in warm climates.
There is one variety at least, Astrangia Da-flce, which
has been found on the shores of Massachusetts and
Connecticut. But what we call true coral has not
hitherto been kept in a living condition in any other
private aquarium than my own. So far as I know,
my acquisition is unique, being the only living speci-
men of the true coral-producing polyp preserved in
captivity within the United States, though plenty of
it may be found at the Florida Keys, some parts of
the West Indies, and at the Bermudas. But these
delicate creatures cannot be preserved except under
favorable conditions; and constant care is required

50 THE ANIMAL "WOULD.

when in the aquarium to see that no injurious sub-
stance or fellow-captives come in contact with them.

■ 12. The Astrangia, specimens of which have been
found in the vicinity of ISTew Haven and other points
along the Sound, differs in this particular from other
varieties of coral: the polyp rises more prominently
above its cell; the coral secretion being limited to
its base, and not, as in the reef-building and some
others, continuing the secretion between the outer
walls of the internal sac and the epithecum. The
tentacles have minute warty prominences upon them,
which are full of lasso-cells. I have never seen speci-
mens of tbis variety above three or four inches in
diameter, by less than one in height. The speci-
mens I have are fine indeed. I have seen them when
the mass of little animals with their myriads of fleecy
locks looked like a pure white ball of snow.

13. Among other varieties of coral which I have
succeeded in preserving in health and good working
order is a fine specimen of the species known as Oc-
culina. *Its peculiarity is its branched or tree-like
form; its zoothome, - or mass of living occupants, when
out in all their glory, are so numerous as nearly to
hide the stony substance of the corallum, presenting
the appearance of a stem and branches adorned with
living flowers. In this variety the tentacles are
shorter than in some other kinds, nor have they the
power of elongating themselves to the same extent.
They are colored, but not uniformly of one shade;
they are often greenish or of an umber tint, with
changeable iridescent color. They are usually con-
sidered more elegant than the reef-building variety,

LIVING CORALS. 51

from which their internal structure does not materi-
ally differ.

14. It will be perceived that the association of the
polyps in all compound groups must be of the most
intimate kind; for, though each individual has a sepa-
rate mouth, tentacles, and stomach, yet the interven-
ing tissue which connects them is subject to a free
circulation of fluids through its pores or lacunes.
Thus the zoothome as a whole must be considered as
a living mass of animal matter, which is all benefited
by the nourishment received through the individual
members. It is a perfect commonwealth of its kind,
even exceeding in perfection that of the honey-bees;
for there are no drones among the polyps.

15. How long the coral polyps will live is not
known. I have preserved mine in pure sea-water for
years, and they appear to be as fresh and healthy as
ever, active and industrious; but this industry, as
has been explained, does not consist in any such opera-
tion as " building." Their simple and sole business
is eating; and that a strong stony structure is the re-
sult, is no more creditable to them than it is to a maple
tree to secrete sugar, nor does it indicate any more
effort.

16. The process of coral growth is, however, very
slow, if my specimens are any criterion. But a very
minute addition has been made to my corallum during
the years that I have had it. I cannot say, however,
whether it might not have progressed more rapidly
had it been left in its original habitat.

17. But though my corallum has grown so slowly
in height or lateral extent, it has increased very fairly

52 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

by gemmation or budding; a considerable number of
infant polyps have been added to the group, always,
so far as I have observed, in the autumn, October and
November. At first the young larvae are worm-like
in form, whitish and semi-transparent; they are very
agile, and dart about in all directions, swimming, as
we may say, " stern foremost," as their mouths are al-
ways in the rear. But this life of freedom soon comes
to an end: Fate has ordained that they shall become
fixed to their parent-stem or some other stationary
object. Their mode of swimming facilitates this re-
sult, the base having a natural tendency to adhere on
contact; and thus its gay youth is soon exchanged for
a sedentary life, with no other changes than that of
eating and digesting their food.

18. There are few natural objects more pleasing
than an association of these corallets; for, as the
polyps rise above their cells and extend their fine
long tentacles, resembling threads of pure white silk,
waving them to and fro like the radiated petals of a
fairy-flower swayed by a gentle zephyr, or, again, like
a minute feather fan slightly concave at the edge,
they present an exceedingly animated and elegant
appearance. Sometimes, when nearly at rest and the
filaments are more contracted, they suggest the ap-
pearance of a dense frost settled upon a bed of moss.

19. But these fairy-like implements, with which
the coral-polyp gathers in its food, are not such inno-
cent objects as they appear to the naked eye. Ex-
amined under a magnifying-glass, there may be ob-
served on the tentacles a row of slight protuberances,
one larger than the rest being situated at the tip.

A " Noble Fellow "

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DOG. 53

These might easily be mistaken for ornaments, but
their character is far different: they may, in fact,
be looked upon as the creature's armory, for within
them lie concealed cnidce or lasso-like filaments,
sometimes called capsule-threads, which are capable
of, being thrown out to a distance many times the
length of their own bodies. It is with these that they
capture their prey; for these little soft animals are
carnivorous in their habits, and indeed have not yet
abandoned the barbarous practice of infusing poison
into their darts. In each of these cnidce is secreted
an injurious fluid, which partially or wholly paralyzes
the small Crustacea or other animals which the ten-
tacles seize; and whatever small prey falls within
their grasp is very promptly and certainly secured.
The mouth of the polyp being in the center of the
upper portion of the body, the victim thus seized is
rapidly passed into it by aid of the longer tentacles,
and thence descends to the stomach.

William E. Damon, " Ocean Wonders."

CHAEACTEEISTICS OF THE DOG.

1. A French writer has boldly affirmed, that with
the exception of women there is nothing on earth so
agreeable, or so necessary to the comfort of man, as
the dog. This assertion may readily be disputed, but
still it will be allowed that man, deprived of the com-
panionship and services of the dog, would be a solitary

54 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

and, in many respects, a helpless being. Let us look
at the shepherd, as the evening closes in and his flock
is dispersed over the almost inaccessible heights of
mountains; they are speedily collected by his inde-
fatigable dog — nor do his services end here: he
guards either the flock or his master's cottage by night,
and a slight caress, and the coarsest food, satisfy him
for all his trouble. The dog performs the services of
a horse in the more northern regions; while in Cuba
and some other hot countries, he has been the scourge
and terror of the runaway negroes. In the destruc-
tion of wild beasts, or the less dangerous stag, or in
attacking the bull, the dog has proved himself to pos-
sess pre-eminent courage. In many instances he has
died in the defense of his master. He has saved him
from drowning, warned him of approaching danger,
served him faithfully in poverty and distress, and if
deprived of sight has gently led him about. When
spoken to, he tries to hold conversation with him by
the movement of his tail or the expression of his eyes.
If his master wants amusement in the field or wood,
he is delighted to have an opportunity of procuring it
for him; if he finds himself in solitude, his dog will
be a cheerful and agreeable companion, and maybe,
when death comes, the last to forsake the grave of his
beloved master.

2. There are a thousand little facts connected
with dogs, which many, who do not love them as
much as I do, may not have observed, but which all
tend to develop their character. For instance, every
one knows the fondness of dogs for warmth, and that
they never appear more contented than when repos-

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DOG. 55

ing on the rug before a good fire. If, however, I
quit the room, my dog leaves his warm berth, and
places himself at the door, where he can the better hear
my footsteps, and be ready to greet me when I re-
enter. If I am preparing to take a walk, my dog is
instantly aware of my intention. He frisks and
jumps about, and is all eagerness to accompany me.
If I am thoughtful or melancholy, he appears to sym-
pathize with me; and on the contrary, when I am
disposed to be merry, he shows by his manner that he
rejoices with me. I have often watched the effect
which a change in my countenance would produce.
If I frown or look severe, but without saying a word
or uttering a sound, the effect is instantly seen by the
ears dropping, and the eyes showing unhappiness, to-
gether with a doubtful movement of the tail. If I
afterward sfnile and look pleased, the tail wags joy-
ously, the eyes are filled with delight, and the ears
even are expressive of happiness. Before a dog, how-
ever, arrives at this knowledge of the human coun-
tenance, he must be the companion of your walks,
repose at your feet, and receive his food from your
hands: treated in this manner, the attachment of the
dog is unbounded; he becomes fond, intelligent, and
grateful. Whenever Stanislas, the unfortunate
King of Poland, wrote to his daughter, he always con-
cluded his letter with these words — " Tristan, my com-
panion in misfortune, licks your feet: " thus showing
that he had still one friend who stuck to him in his
adversity.

3. The propensities of the dog, and some of them
are most extraordinary, appear to be independent of

56 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

that instinct which Paley calls " a propensity previous
to experience, and independent of instruction." Some
of these are hereditary, or derived from the habits of
the parents, and are suited to the purposes to which
each breed has long been and is still applied. In fact,
their organs have a fitness or unfitness for certain func-
tions without education; — for instance, a very young
puppy of the St. Bernard breed of dogs, when taken
on snow for the first time, will begin to scratch it
with considerable eagerness. I have seen a young
pointer of three or four weeks old stand steadily on
first seeing poultry, and a well-bred terrier puppy
will show a great deal of ferocity at the sight of a
rat or mouse.

4. Sir John Sebright, perhaps the best authority
that can be quoted on this subject, says that he had a
puppy of the wild breed of Australia; that the mother
was with young when caught, and the puppy was born
in the ship that brought her over. This animal was so
like a wolf, not only in its appearance, but in all its
habits, that Sir John at first doubted if it really were
a dog, but this was afterward proved by experiment.

5. Of all the propensities of the brute creation,
the well-known attachment of the dog to man is the
most remarkable, arising probably from his having
been for so many years his constant companion, and
the object of his care. That this propensity is not in-
stinctive is proved, by its not having existed, even in
the slightest degree, in the Australian dog.

6. Sir John Sebright kept this animal for about a
year, almost always in his room. He fed him him-
self, and took every means that he could think of to

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DOG. 57

reclaim him, but with no' effect. He was insensible
to caresses, and never appeared to distinguish Sir
John from any other person. The dog would never
follow him, even from one room to another; nor
would he come when called, unless tempted by the
offer of food. Wolves and foxes have shown much
more sociability than he did. He appeared to be in
good spirits, but always kept aloof from the other
dogs. He was what would be called tame for an ani-
mal in a menagerie; that is, he was not shy, but would
allow strangers to handle him, and never attempted to
bite. If he were led near sheep or poultry, he be-
came quite furious from his desire to attack them.

7. Here, then, we see that the propensities that
are the most marked, and the most constant in every
breed of domestic dogs, are not to be found in animals
of the same species in their natural state, or even in
their young, although subjected to the same treat-
ment from the moment of their birth.

8. Notwithstanding the above-mentioned fact, we
may, I think, consider the domestic dog as an animal
per se; that is, that it neither owes its origin to the fox
nor wolf, but is sprung from the wild dog. In giv-
ing this opinion, I am aware that some naturalists
have endeavored to trace the origin of the dog from
the fox; while others, and some of the most eminent
ones, are of opinion that it sprung from the wolf. I
shall be able to show that the former is out of the
question. The wolf, perhaps, has some claim to be
considered as the parent animal, and that he is sus-
ceptible of as strong attachment as the dog is proved
by the following anecdote, related by Ouvier.

58 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

9. He informs us, that a young wolf was brought
up as a dog, became familiar with every person whom
he was in the habit of seeing, and in particular, fol-
lowed his master everywhere, evincing evident cha-
grin at his absence, obeying his voice, and showing
a degree of submission scarcely differing in any re-
spect from that of the domesticated dog. His master,
being obliged to be absent for a time, presented his
pet to the Menagerie du Roi, where the animal, con-
fined in a den, continued disconsolate, and would
scarcely eat his food. At length, however, his health
returned, he became attached to his keepers, and ap-
peared to have forgotten all his former affection;
when, after an absence of eighteen months, his master
returned. At the first word he uttered, the wolf,
who had not perceived him among the crowd, recog-
nized him, and exhibited the greatest joy. On being
set at liberty, highly affectionate caresses were lav-
ished on his old master, such as the most attached
dog would have shown after an absence of a few
days.

10. A second separation was followed by similar
demonstrations of sorrow, which, however, again
yielded to time. Three years passed, and the wolf
was living happily in company with a dog, which had
been placed with him, when his master returned,
and again the long-lost but still-remembered voice
was instantly replied to by the most impatient cries,
which were redoubled as soon as the poor animal was
set at liberty; when, rushing to his master, he threw
his fore-feet on his shoulders, licking his face with the
most lively joy, and menacing his keepers, who offered

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DOG. 59

to remove him, and toward whom, not a moment be-
fore, he had been showing every mark of fondness.

11. A third separation, however, seemed to be too
much for this faithful animal's temper. He became
gloomy, desponding, refused his food, and for a long
time his life appeared in great danger. His health
at last returned, but he no longer suffered the caresses
of any but his keepers, and toward strangers mani-
fested the original savageness of his species.

12. Mr. Bell, in his " History of Quadrupeds,"
mentions a curious fact, which, I think, still more
strongly proves the alliance of the dog with the wolf,
and is indeed exactly similar to what is frequently
done by dogs when in a state of domestication. He
informs us that he " remembers a female wolf at the
Zoological Gardens, which would always come to the
front bars of her den to be caressed as soon as he, or
any other person whom she knew, approached.
When she had pups, she used to bring them in her
mouth to be noticed; and so eager, in fact, was she
that her little ones should share with her in the notice
of her friends, that she killed all of them in succession
by rubbing them against the bars of her den, as she
brought them forward to be fondled."

13. It must, in fact, be always an interesting
matter of inquiry respecting the descent of an ani-
mal so faithful to man, and so exclusively his asso-
ciate and his friend, as the dog. Accordingly, this
question has been entertained ever since Natural
History took the rank of a science. But the origin
of the dog is lost in antiquity. We find him occupy-
ing a place in the earliest pagan worship; his name

60 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

has been given to one of the first-mentioned stars of
the heavens, and his effigy may be seen in some of the
most ancient works of art. Pliny was of opinion that
there was no domestic animal without its unsubdued
counterpart, and dogs are known to exist absolutely
wild in various parts of the Old and New World. The
dingo of Australia, a magnificent animal of this kind,
has been shown to be susceptible of mutual attach-
ment in a singular degree, though none of the ex-
periments yet made have proved that he is capable,
like the domestic dog, of a similar attachment to man.
The parentage of the wild dogs has been assigned to
the tame species, strayed from the dominion of their
masters. This, however, still remains a question, and
there is reason to believe that the wild dog is just as
much a native of the wilderness as the lion or tiger.
If there be these doubts about an animal left for cen-
turies in a state of nature, how can we expect to un-
ravel the difficulties accumulated by the ages of do-
mestication? Who knows for a certainty the true
prototype of the goat, the sheep, or the ox? To the
unscientific reader such questions might appear idle,
as having been settled from time immemorial; yet
they have never been finally disposed of. The diffi-
culty, as with the dog, may be connected with modi-
fications of form and color, resulting from the long-
continued interference of man with the breed and
habits of animals subjected to his sway.

Edward Jesse, "Anecdotes of Dogs."

BUFFON. 61

BUFFOK

1. Geokge Louis Leclekc, Comte de Buffon, was
born on the 7th of September, 1707, at Montbard,
in Burgundy, and died at Paris on the 15th of April,
1788. His father, M. Leclerc de Buffon, was coun-
cillor of the Burgundian parliament, and his mother,
Anne Christine Marlin, appears to have possessed con-
siderable natural gifts. Buffon was the eldest of five
children, and does not seem to have been in any way
a precocious child. On the contrary, he seems from
his earliest years to have been characterized more es-
pecially by great perseverance, patience, knowledge
of the value of time, and exceptional powers of steady
application and protracted labor. He was originally
destined to his father's profession, and studied law
at the college of Jesuits at Dijon; but he soon ex-
hibited a marked predilection for the study of the
physical sciences, and more particularly for mathe-
matics.

2. While at Dijon he made the acquaintance of
Lord Kingston, a young Englishman, who was at the
time staying there along with his tutor, a man of abil-
ity and discernment. In this agreeable companion-
ship, Buffon traveled through Italy, being then nine-
teen years of age. Returning to France, he com-
menced to study at Angers, still in company with
Lord Kingston; but having quarreled with a young
Englishman at play, and subsequently wounded
him, he was compelled to leave this town. He there-

62 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

upon removed to Paris, and during his sojourn in the
capital he translated Newton's " Fluxions " and
Hale's " Vegetable Statics," which he subsequently
presented to the Academy of Sciences. From Paris
he proceeded to England, where he remained three
months; but his travels seem to have ended here.
At twenty-five years of age he succeeded to a con-
siderable property, inherited from his mother, and
from this time onward his life was a completely in-
dependent one, and he was enabled to devote himself
entirely to his scientific pursuits. He returned now
to France, and lived partly at Montbard and partly at
Paris.

3. Though loving pleasure, and not keeping him-
self free from the prevalent vices of the age in which
he lived, Buffon spent 'the remainder of his life in
regular scientific labor, employing an amanuensis,
and thus securing a permanent record of his work.
At first he directed his attention more especially to
mathematics, physics, and agriculture, and his chief
original papers are connected with these subjects.
In the spring of 1739 he was elected a member of
the Academy of Sciences; and at a later period of
the same year he was appointed keeper of the Jardin
du Roi and of the Royal Museum. This appears to
have finally determined him to devote himself to the
biological sciences in particular, and he commenced to
collect materials for his " Natural History." In the
preparation of this voluminous work, he associated
with himself Daubenton, to whom the descriptive and
anatomical portions of the treatise were intrusted,
and the first three volumes made their appearance

BUFFON. 63

in the year 1749. In the year 1752 he married
Marie Frangoise de Saint-Belin. He seems to have
been greatly attached to her, and felt deeply her
death, which took place at Montbard in 1769. The
remainder of Buffon's life, as a private individual,
presents nothing of special interest. He belonged
to a very long-lived race, his father having attained
the age of ninety-three, and his grandfather eighty-
seven years. He himself died at the age of eighty-
one, of vesical calculus, having refused to allow of
any operation for his relief. He left one son, who was
an officer in the French army, and who died by the
guillotine, at the age of thirty, having espoused the
party of the Duke of Orleans.

4. Buffon was a member of the French Academy,
perpetual treasurer of the Academy of Sciences, Fel-
low of the Royal Society of London, and member of
the Academies of Berlin, St. Petersburg, Dijon, and
of most of the learned societies then existing in
Europe. Of handsome person and noble presence,
endowed with many of the external gifts of nature,
and rejoicing in the social advantages of high rank
and large possessions, he is mainly known by his pub-
lished scientific writings. Without being a profound
original investigator, in the modern sense of this term,
Buffon possessed considerable power of generalization,
along with the art of expressing his ideas in a clear
and generally attractive form. His chief defects as
a scientific writer are, that he was given to excessive
and hasty generalization, so that his hypotheses, how-
ever seemingly brilliant, are often destitute of any
sufficient basis in observed facts, while his literary

64 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

style is not unfrequently theatrical and turgid, and a
great want of method and order is commonly observ-
able in his writings.

5. His great work is the " Histoire Naturelle ge-
nerate et particuliere; " and it can undoubtedly claim
the merit of having been the first work to present the
previously isolated and apparently disconnected facts
of natural history in a popular and generally intelligi-
ble form. The sensation which was made by its appear-
ance in successive parts was very great, and it certain-
ly effected much good in its time by generally diffus-
ing a taste for the study of nature. For a work so
vast, however — aiming, as it did, at being little less
than a general encyclopaedia of the sciences — Buffon's
capacities may, without disparagement, be said to
have been insufficient, as is shown by the great weak-
ness of parts of the work (such as that relating to
mineralogy). The " Histoire Naturelle " passed
through several editions, and was translated into vari-
ous languages. The edition most highly prized by
collectors, on account of the beauty of its plates, is
the first, which was published in Paris (1749-1804)
in forty-four quarto volumes, the publication extend-
ing over more than fifty years. In the preparation
of the first fifteen volumes of this edition Buffon was
assisted by Daubenton, and subsequently by Gue-
neau de Montbeliard, the Abbe Bexon, and Sonnini
de Manoncourt. The following seven volumes form
a supplement to the preceding, and appeared in 1774-
'89. These were succeeded by nine volumes on Birds
(l770-'83), and these were followed by five volumes
on Minerals (1783-'88). The remaining eight vol-

BUFFON. 65

umes, which complete this edition, appeared after Buf-
fon's death, and comprise Keptiles, Fishes, and Ceta-
ceans. They were executed by Lacepede, and were
published in successive volumes between 1788 and
1804. A second, edition was commenced in 1774 and
completed in 1804, in thirty-six volumes quarto. It
is in most respects similar to the first edition, except
that the anatomical descriptions of Daubenton are
preserved. Though not without his enemies — scien-
tific and clerical — Buffon had many warm friends,
and his death was marked by the delivery of highly
laudatory addresses, by Condorcet at the Academy
of Sciences, Vicq-dAzir at the Academie Frangaise,
and Bressonet before the Society of Agriculture.
Extravagantly belauded by some, and vehemently
attacked by others, we can recognize his merits with-
out blinding ourselves to his defects.

6. This brief notice of his life may be fitly closed
by the following quotation from Cuvier, in which the
great Trench naturalist, while rejecting some specula-
tions which recent science has generally accepted as
probable, ascribes to Buffon the honor of being the
first to clearly apprehend what is now admitted as
the true principle of guidance in investigating the or-
der of the universe: — " It is impossible to defend, in
all their details, either the first or the second of Buf-
fon's theories of the earth. This comet which strikes
off portions of the sun, these vitrified and incandescent
planets which refrigerate by degrees, some more rapid-
ly than others, those organized beings which appear
successively on the surface of the planets, as their
temperature becomes sufficiently lowered, can only

66 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

be regarded as flights of fancy. But Buffon has not
less the merit of having been the first to point out
clearly that the actual condition of the globe is the
result of a succession of changes, of which we can
find the evidences to-day; and it is he who first drew
the observation of all investigators to the phenomena
by which these changes can be unraveled."

Anonymous, " Encyclopaedia Britannica."

THE LION'S KIDE.

1. The lion is the desert's king; through his domain

so wide
Bight swiftly and right royally this night he

means to ride.
By the sedgy brink, where the wild herds drink,

close couches the grim chief;
The trembling sycamore above whispers with

every leaf.

2. At evening, on the Table Mount, when ye can see

no more
The changeful play of signals gay; when the

gloom is speckled o'er
With kraal fires; when the CafTre wends home

through the lone karroo;
When the boshbok in the thicket sleeps, and by

the stream the gnu;

THE LION'S RIDE. 67

3. Then bend your gaze across the waste, — what see

ye? The giraffe,
Majestic, stalks toward the lagoon, the turbid

lymph to quaff;
With outstretched neck and tongue adust, he

kneels him down to cool
His hot thirst with a welcome draught from the

foul and brackish pool.

4. A rustling sound, a roar, a bound, — the Hon sits

astride
Upon his giant courser's back. Did ever king

so ride?
Had ever king a steed so rare, caparisons of

,state
To match the dappled skin whereon that rider

sits elate?

5. In the muscles of the neck his teeth are plunged

with ravenous greed;
His tawny mane is tossing round the withers of

the steed.
Up leaping with a hollow yell of anguish and

surprise,
Away, away, in wild dismay, the cameleopard

flies.

6. His feet have wings; see how he springs across

the moonlit plain!
As from their sockets they would burst, his glar-
ing eyeballs strain;

58 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

In thick black streams of purling blood, full fast
his life is fleeting;

The stillness of the desert hears his heart's tumul-
tuous beating.

7. Like the cloud that, through the "wilderness, the

path of Israel traced, —
Like an airy phantom, dull and wan, a spirit of

the waste, —
From the sandy sea uprising, as the water-spout

from ocean,
A whirling cloud of dust keeps pace with the

courser's fiery motion.

8. Croaking companion of their flight, the vulture

whirs on high;
Below, the terror of the fold, the panther fierce

and sly,
And hyenas foul, 'round graves that prowl, join

in the horrid race;
By the footprints wet with gore and sweat, their

monarch's course they trace.

9. They see him on his living throne, and quake with

fear, the while

With claws of steel he tears piecemeal his cush-
ion's painted pile.

On! on! no pause, no rest, giraffe, while life and
strength remain!

The steed by such a rider backed may madly
plunge in vain.

MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS. 69

10. Reeling upon the desert's verge, he falls, and
breathes his last;
The courser, stained with dust and foam, is the

rider's fell repast.
O'er Madagascar, eastward far, a faint flush is

descried: —
Thus nightly, o'er his broad domain, the king of
beasts doth ride.

Ferdinand Fkeiliobath.

MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS.

1. No animal displays so much power and instinct
in its distant excursions as the bird: these have really
something prodigious in them. It is only by the aid
of accurate instruments and knotty calculations that
the sailor trusts himself upon the sea, whereas our
winged travelers, without guide or compass, and with-
out ever losing their way, transport themselves from
the polar circle to the tropical regions. The cranes
pass the summer on the stormy strands of Scandi-
navia, and the winter amid the ruins of the palaces of
the Pharaohs.

2. The mechanism of birds is admirably suited to
aid their rapid flight. Their aerial oars, moved by
muscles of extraordinary power,- easily adapt them-
selves to all the hazards of their peregrinations
"through the elevated regions of air. There are ani-
mals, as the swallow, for instance, to which flight is

1Q THE ANIMAL WORLD.

so easy that they seem to make a sport of it. A pas-
sive force further assists their suspension in the plains
of the atmosphere ; air, rarefied by the warmth of the
body, penetrates into all its cavities and even to the
interior of the bones. Rendered thus specifically
lighter, like Montgolfier balloons filled with warm
gas, they float without effort amid the clouds. Such
is the daring flight of those, condors which launched
themselves from the frozen summits of the Andes to-
ward the sky, and soon disappeared from the sight
of M. d'Orbigny, without one's being able to ex-
plain how they could breathe so rarefied an atmos-
phere.

3. The bird, though endowed with such a slight
frame, nevertheless surpasses in strength the ponder-
ous engines which glide along our railroads. Its ves-
sels and fibers, notwithstanding their wonderful deli-
cacy, work and resist more energetically than our
heavy wheel-work and cast-iron tubes; in the one is
seen the finger of God, in the other only the genius
of man ! Launched like an arrow into space, the bird,
playing the while, silently clears twenty leagues an
hour. A locomotive going at high pressure, envel-
oped in fire and smoke, attains the same speed only
by consuming heaps of coke and water amid the in-
fernal uproar of its wheels and pistons.

4. According to Sir Hans Sloane, the sea-mews
which nestle on the rocks of Barbadoes take every day
a journey over the sea of one hundred and thirty
leagues, to amuse themselves and seek for food on a
distant island. The industry of the animal thus ex-
celling that of man.

MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS. 71

5. On their adventurous excursions birds follow
their track unerringly, guided by sensations of an
unknown nature- and of extreme delicacy, among
which sight and smell play a great part. All his-
torians relate that after the battle of Pharsalia, the
putrid emanations from the dead heaped upon the
ground attracted the vultures from Asia and Africa,
which came thither to make their repast. It is cer-
tain, according to Humboldt, that if a horse or cow
be killed in the most solitary passes of the Cordilleras,
where one might think not even condors could exist,
several of these sordid carnivorous birds, attracted by
the stench, are soon seen arriving in order to gorge
themselves with the putrefied flesh.

6. The migrations of certain birds are understood;
we know from whence they start, where they halt, and
where they end their journey. Thus, for instance,
in autumn, bands of quails which are emigrating, con-
stantly arrive exhausted at the island of Malta, where
they meet with fatal hospitality. They are taken in
swarms in the streets of the town and on the roads, and
as the inhabitants cannot consume the whole of this
living harvest, it is sent to distant markets. The
deck of the ship in which I left the harbor was laden
with them.

7. The mysterious emigration of the swallows has
particularly occupied the attention of observers. Men
could not make out what became of these charming
visitors when they suddenly disappeared, and not long
ago the strangest suppositions were indulged in. on this
head.

8. As these birds in autumn seek their prey in the

72 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

fens, and seem to plunge into them, it was for a long
time believed that they buried themselves in the mud,
only to issue again with the return of the spring
warmth, which reanimated them after a six months'
asphyxia. Olaus Magnus, a northern naturalist, more
erudite than observing, was the first who propagated
this fable, going so far as to maintain that the Nor-
wegian fishermen often take in their nets a great num-
ber of swallows along with the fish. It was even
asserted that if the poor birds, all soiled with mud,
soaked with water, and stupefied with cold, were ex-
posed to the heat of a stove, they were seen to become
speedily dry and return to life.

9. Linnaeus, Buff on, and even Cuvier, believed
such stories! Ought we to consider this as a reproach
on their parts, when we see that some physiologists of
our own time obstinately maintain that certain animals
can be reanimated?

10. As the swallows have for a long time con-
cealed their winter residence, it became the sub-
ject of all sorts of conjectures. Some naturalists
maintained that, instead of emigrating to distant re-
gions, they hid themselves and became torpid in the
depths of some cave, just as the bats do. One of the
most reliable of these men, Larrey the surgeon, men-
tions having discovered in the neighborhood of Mauri-
enne a grotto, the roof of which was lined with a
mass of swallows which kept themselves attached to it
like a swarm of bees.

11. But the experiments of Spallanzani have de-
stroyed all these false creeds. The learned abbe
found that the swallows which he wanted to throw

MIGRATIONS OF BIROS. 73

into a state of hibernation in an ice-house, Sid not be-
come torpid, but died.

12. Adanson has taught us that the swallows be-
take themselves to the Senegal during the cold sea-
son. Those which are scattered through our lands
unite together at autumn on the shores of the Mediter-
ranean, and when an irresistible desire impels them to
depart, cross this sea in numerous troops. Thus then
in summer the swallow builds its nest under the sump-
tuous cornices of our palaces, and in winter inhabits
the huts of Senegambia.

13. All do not attain the goal of their pilgrimage.
The waves engulf those who have reckoned too much
upon their strength, unless some propitious rock or
ship happens to be at hand to lend them refuge. Dur-
ing one of my wanderings across the Mediterranean,
some strayed swallows happened, when we were mid-
way between the two coasts, to fall totally exhausted
on the deck of the frigate which was carrying me
toward Africa. Every one on board, soldiers and
sailors, overwhelmed them with attentions, which they
received without exhibiting signs of fear. When
they had at last recovered from their fatigues, they
recommenced their journey toward the high regions
of Senegal, and perchance rested beneath the cabins
of savages long ere we had greeted the ports of Al-
geria.

14. But after long and perilous journeys these
charming visitors of our dwellings return each year
with touching fidelity to find their old domicile again.
If the rains and winds have injured it, the architects
quickly repair it before making it witness of their

74 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

loves. Spallanzani has even noticed that the feath-
ered couples become strongly attached to their par-
ticular nests. Having fixed party-colored ribbons to
the feet of some of them, he recognized them the year
after, when they came to take possession again. He
saw them return thus for eighteen successive summers.
How many among us never enjoy such a long ten-
ancy!

15. Another species of the same group, the ariel
swallow, fondly returns to its republic, formed of
agglomerated nests, and more ingeniously constructed
than those of our swallows. These nests resemble so
many wide-necked bottles hung by the bottom in inac-
cessible places.

16. Less remarkable for the instinct which guides
them than for the innumerable multitude of their
army, the passenger pigeons (Columba migratoria)
traverse the forests of America in such compact
masses that they absolutely intercept the rays of the
sun, and cast a long track of shadows on the ground.
Their compact columns extend over such a space that
the eye cannot take in the full extent of it. It has
been calculated that it is often sixty leagues in length.
The passing of these columns sometimes lasts three
hours, and as these birds travel at the rate of nearly
twenty leagues an hour, their army must necessarily
extend over fifty to sixty leagues of sky.

17. This immense host never travels by night;
so soon as ever darkness overtakes them, they precipi-
tate themselves breathless and exhausted upon the
nearest forest, there to rest from their fatigues. Their
legions accumulate in such numbers upon the trees

MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS. 75

that the great branches yield or break beneath their
weight, and all the invaders are soon after composed
to sleep. But scarcely are the pigeons installed there
than all the able-bodied people in the country hasten
to the spot, and make a complete carnage of them.
The well-sustained noise and firing do not in the least
interrupt the sleep of these harassed travelers. The
victims fall; the women and children pick them up,
or even kill with sticks those pigeons which have
perched within their reach. The yield is so abundant,
that, not being able to consume in the locality all the
birds which are killed, they are often obliged to salt
and pack them in barrels, so that they may be kept or
sent to a distance.

18. The cold of winter drives most animals from
the Polar regions, and compels them to withdraw to
countries more favored by the sun. The penguins
of the Cape alone seem to evade this universal law.
These bird-fish, being intrepid swimmers, are most at
home in the midst of the ices or the roaring waves.
They only haunt the shores of Africa in order to
scoop out their nests, hatch their eggs, and rear their
young. When the young have become sufficiently
robust to support the fatigues of the journey, all these
palimpedes, mysteriously obeying an instinct of which
the Creator alone knows the aim, suddenly disap-
pear from the African shores, and seek during six
months of winter the frightful regions of the south
pole, condemned to incessant struggles amid tempests
and ice. But at the return bf spring the penguins
reappear in numerous troops, and encumber anew the
banks now smiling with verdure, grouping themselves

76 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

in long processions seemingly occupied only in revel-
ing in light and love.

19. In contrast to these pictures of the wandering
life of certain birds may he placed those in which,
notwithstanding the strength of their wings, these
tenants of the air live almost entirely at home, only
flitting around the environs of the site which nour-
ishes them and sees their birth. "While in their dar-
ing flight some of the wading birds cleave their way
through the clouds and sweep a whole hemisphere, a
little family of humming-birds have only a rosebush
for their universe. Like an elegant vase ornamented
with lichens, the Colibri's downy nest of cotton is bal-
anced on the extremity of the most slender branches
of the plant, while these aerial diamonds make prey
of the insects which the flowers attract, or drink the
pearls of dew which their petals distil.

20. In the same manner the humming-birds,
robed in changing green, which attract and charm all
eyes, the " emeralds of Brazil " (Chlorostilbon pra-
sinus), as they are commonly called, set up their
family nests upon the slender pendant stems of the
creepers, from the vicinity of which they rarely move.
Rocked by the zephyr, the female broods tranquilly
on her eggs, while her lord flits amorously near her;
here are spent all the happy days of the gentle pair.

F. A. Pouchet, " The Universe."

THE SEA-ANEMONE. 77

THE SEA-ANEMONE.

1. The beautiful marine animal known as the sea-
anemone though nearly allied to the coral polyp is not
an architect, nor has it played an important part in the
great changes of the ocean bottom, and thus indirectly
in the formation of the planet. In beauty of tint
and form these inhabitants of the sea rival the most
exquisite products of the floral kingdom. But, in
addition to loveliness of form and color, they have
the superior attraction of vitality. These sea flowers
are living animals, breathing, eating, digesting, and
capable of changing their forms at will. A pink
would be more curious if it could walk, a rose awaken
greater interest if it could reach after its necessary
nourishment and take care of its own buds. This is
what the flowers of the sea do. Supported by a solid
base and cylindrical stem, the observer sees them
terminate like the corolla of a flower, as in the petals
of the anemone which gives the animals its name.
These charming and timid creatures are also called
actiniae, as indicating their tendency to form rays or
stars, from the Greek word aktin, a ray.

2. The body of these animals is cylindrical in
form, terminating beneath in a muscular disk, which
is generally large and distinct, enabling them to cling
vigorously to foreign bodies. It terminates above
in an upper disk, bearing many rows of tentacles
which differ from each other only in their size. These
tentacles are often decorated with brilliant colors,

78 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

forming a species of collarette, consisting of tubes
which can be contracted and extended, pierced at
their points by an orifice, whence water can be drawn
in or ejected at the will of the animal. Arranged in
multiples of circles, they distribute themselves with
perfect regularity around the mouth. These are the
arms of the zoophyte. The mouth of tbe sea-anem-
one, oval in form, is among the tentacles, and com-
municates with the stomach by a short tube. This
stomach performs a variety of offices, for it is the
digestive organ, the lungs, and from it are projected
the young of the creature. The ova, or eggs, are
held in the tentacles or feelers, and are fecundated in
the month of September, when the embryos are de-
veloped. These then pass into the stomach, being
afterward ejected from the mouth with the rejected
portions of the food. So we see that it is the stomach
that breathes, and the mouth which is the organ of
birth.

. 3. The sea-anemones multiply their species in an-
other manner, similar to the process employed by the
coral polyp. Bud-like excretions appear on the edge
of the base, which finally detach themselves from the
mother and become separate animals. In fact, in
some species there is still another method, which is
thus described by Mr. Hogg, the naturalist. Wish-
ing to detach an anemone from the aquarium, he only
succeeded by violent efforts in tearing off the lower
portion of the creature, six partly separated portions
remaining attached to the glass. At the end of eight
days it was noticed that these fragments of the ani-
mal seemed to have distinct contractile powers, and

THE SEA-ANEMONE. 79

that each had a row of tentacles. They developed
shortly, into six perfect anemones. Every part of
these strange creatures thus became a living creature,
while the mutilated mother continued to live as if
nothing had happened. In short, sea-anemones may
be cut limb from limb, divided and subdivided. Each
part of the body is quickly replaced. Cut off the
tentacles, and they are renewed in a very short time.

4. The sea-anemones vary in their habitat from
pools near low-water mark to eighteen or twenty fath-.
oms of water, whence they have been dredged up.
" They adhere," says Dr. Johnson, " to rocks, shells,
and other extraneous bodies by means of a glutinous
secretion from their enlarged base; but they can leave
their hold and remove to another station whensoever
it pleases them, either by gliding along with a slow
and almost imperceptible movement (half an inch in
five minutes, as is their usual method), or by reversing
the body and using the tentacles for feet, or, lastly, by
inflating the body with water to ,make themselves
buoyant, and allowing themselves to be driven by
the random motion of the waves. They feed on
shrimps, small crabs, whelks, and similar mollusks,
and probably .on all animals brought within their
reach whose strength or agility is not sufficient to ex-
tricate them from the grasp of their numerous ten-
tacula."

5. The sea-anemone passes nearly its whole life
fixed to some rock, section of coral, the back of a crab
or other crustacean. There it lives a sort of uncon-
scious and obtuse existence, gifted with an instinct
so obscure that it is not even conscious of the prey

80 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

in its vicinity until it is actually in contact, when it
seizes it in its large mouth and swallows it. < One
naturalist tells the story of a large actinia who took
a notion to swallow a scallop which it had captured.
After much stretching it got the bivalve down into
its stomach, and in due time the mollusk was digested.
The problem then was to get rid of the shell. It was
a double disaster: the scallop had been taken in, and
so was the sea-flower. It was the same as if a guest
at the table should swallow a tea-saucer. The anem-
one, however, proved equal to the emergency. It
literally changed its base by dividing itself into two
animals attached to the scallop shell as a foundation,
each part becoming a perfect animal.

6. When free, the anemone swims backward, till
its base encounters a firm object, and then it fixes it-
self by suction. There are two specimens which
show a marked preference for the backs of crabs and
similar animals. One is called the parasite anemone,
and its favorite home is on the hard shell of the hermit-
crab. As these crabs are great travelers, and fre-
quently vacate their domiciles by taking possession of
other empty shells, this species of anemone sees more
of life than his cousins.

7. The sea-flowers differ greatly in size, form,
and color, and also in special peculiarities of develop-
ment and function; so that a large collection would
have the appearance of an animated flower-garden
composed of carnations, china-asters, dahlias, daisies,
etc. " The beauty of many species," says Mr. Damon,
" is greatly enhanced by the fact that several colors
are combined in individual specimens. Thus some-

THE SEA-ANEMONE. 81

times the main body or column will be. green with
white or golden tentacles, and the base buff with a
pink disk or tips, or crimson with azure spheroids;
sometimes the whole animal will be of one color, varied
by different tints and shades. Down below, in the
caves of the sea, these wonderful creatures have for
untold ages anticipated our modern ' combination
suits,' and have appeared dressed in all the glory of
scarlet and gold, pink and gray, blue and white, green
and crimson; their exquisite taste always selecting ac-
cords or pleasing contrasts, and avoiding all discordant
shades which would clash or ' kill ' each other, such as
we sometimes see in human productions."

8. The column-shaped body of the anemone is
soft, but usually tough and tenacious, and consists of
a simple sac or cavity, commonly broadened at the
base and open at the top or mouth. The upper cham-
bers of the cavity are prolonged into tentacles or feel-
ers which extend in a number of rows around the
mouth, forming, when they are all extended, a beauti-
ful crown. " If these tentacles or feelers are touched,
or if the creature is in any way alarmed, they are
instantly contracted, and all the parts sink down
and are drawn together into a compact mass. This is
effected by the exudation of water from the cavities
or chambers through a series of openings connected
with the central cavity. Expansion takes place by
the reversed action, filling these cells with water."
Sometimes the power which they possess of altering
their shape appears to be exercised for the mere pleas-
ure of the thing. Now they will contract themselves
into balls, partially elongated and expanded; then
7

82 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

they will stretch out their fringes or tentacles to their
widest extent, like a many-petaled flower in full
bloom; and again they will encircle themselves with
belts or girdles, drawn more or less tight and shifting
up and down, involving changes of form every minute.

9. " In addition to the tentacles," says the author
last quoted, " these curious creatures are armed for at-
tacking their prey with what we may call fine thread*
like lassos, of arrow-like sharpness, called cnidce
(from a Greek word meaning a nettle), from which
is transmitted a powerful stinging and benumbing sen-
sation, deadly to small prey, the victim being affected
as by a shock of electricity. This I know by experi-
ence, for, some years ago, when in Bermuda, while at-
tempting to take a large actinia from a rock, one of
these soft-looking beauties gave me a shock which dis-
abled my arm for hours. It will easily be understood
that this concealed battery enables the sea-anemones
to conquer much larger and stronger creatures than
they could hold simply by the tentacles; they often
seize large shrimps and crabs far beyond their own
size. Occasionally, however, if one of these finds an
anemone weakened from any cause, it will take up a
position upon the edge of its mouth, keeping it dis-
tended, and with its claws pluck out the food from
the victim's sac and appropriate it to its own use.
Sometimes, when such an attempt is made, a combat
ensues, and then woe to the marauder if he has mis-
taken the strength of the sea-anemone ! He will sure-
ly fall into his own trap."

10. A naturalist tells the story of the self-protect-
ive power of the actinia in the following sprightly

THE SEA-ANEMONE. 83

manner: " Let me invite you to a sight I have many
times beheld. I have in captivity a hungry sea-
flower. Knowing well what suits its palate, I take
a delicate morsel like a pillule and let it fall in the
water. It descends on the waving petals or tentacula,
on the point of one of which the pretty creature has
caught it in an instant. How delicate the adjustment
upon its more than fairy fingers! For a few minutes
it is balanced with the nicest poise on that dactylic
petal. Ah! a voracious and unmannerly little bum-'
mer of a minnow sees the delicious morsel, and makes
a rapid dash to snatch it from my pet. Good, good!
"Well done, my bonny! I did not see the slightest
motion of that indignant flower creature; yet assured-
ly there was a movement, and an effectual one too, for
the zoophyte had shot one of its invisible shafts, and
the ichthyic thief dashes off like one frantic with
pain. Is he hurt? Likely. He is stung in the
snout. See how he seems to shake his nose. He ac-
tually appears to sneeze again, and conducts himself
much like a puppy that, uninvited, has thrust his nose
into a basin of hot soup. Ah, ha ! He is rubbing his
fishy proboscis against a frond of sea-lettuce. Per-
haps the salad may cool his burning pain. Some-
times, however, the insatiable stomach of the sea-
flower is made to give up its prey. Among the suc-
cessful robbers, shrimps are foremost. The shrimp,
seeing the anemone devouring its food, will dash on
it from a distance, and sometimes even extract the
swallowed morsel from the stomach itself. Seating
itself on the extended disk of the sea-flower, with its
small feet it prevents the approach of the tentacles

84 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

at the same time that it inserts its claws into the di-
gestive cavity and seizes the food. In vain the anem-
one tries to contract its gills and close its mouth.
Sometimes the conflict between the zoophyte and
crustacean becomes serious. When the former is
strong and robust the aggression is repelled, and the
aggressive shrimp makes the dessert for the sea-flower's
repast."

11. If the actinia is voracious, it has also great
powers of fasting. These creatures have been known
to live two and three years without any nourishment.
They are said to be delicate eating, and to be in con-
siderable favor for the table in Southern France, Italy,
and Greece, the taste resembling closely that of the
crab or lobster.

Anonymous, " A World of Wonders."

SOME CURIOUS ANIMAL
COMPANIONSHIPS.

1. If it be true, as the old proverb informs us,
that " Poverty makes us acquainted with strange bed-
fellows," so no less truly may it be asserted, that
natural history science exemplifies for us instances
of the strangest associations and companionships
among both lower and higher animals. Nor are
these associations always to be explained on the
grounds of parasitism, or from other causes which
zoology may plainly enough demonstrate. In cases

SOME CUKIOUS ANIMAL COMPANIONSHIPS. 85

where one animal acts the part of an unconscious or
unwilling " host " to other animals, which have
taken up their abode within or upon it as " guests,"
the cause or principle of the association is quite ex-
plicable, on the ground that the parasites seek the
bodies of other animals as their natural and rightful
territory. And indeed, unless provided for, by gain-
ing access to its own and generally limited territory,
the parasite perishes, being literally unable to help
itself.

2. The instances of companionship to which we
specially refer, however, are very far removed in their
essential features from the question of parasitism.
Abundant examples, as we shall presently note, may
be found, in which one animal form associates itself
with another, often of widely different nature and
status in the scale of being from itself; this associa-
tion being generally of the most invariable kind. The
one animal being found, we may safely and surely
predict the presence of the other. Such instances of
invariable and close companionship are very rarely to
be explained on ordinary grounds, and present to the
naturalist puzzles of the gravest and deepest kind.
In the vast majority of cases, he fails to see any ap-
parent benefit or aid to be derived by either of the as-
sociated beings; and it is exactly this want of object,
if we may so term it, in the companionship of many
animals, which forms one of the most inexplicable
aspects of such studies.

3. It is a remarkable fact that an absolute dis-
interestedness marks many such companionships, al-
though it is sometimes hard to draw the line which

86 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

shall separate pure " parasites " from mere " guests "
and " lodgers." The well-known flower-like sea-
anemones, so familiar as denizens of our sea-coasts,
present several notable examples of curious com-
panionship. It has been noted that small fishes are
frequently in the habit of swimming about within
the mouths and stomach-sacs of large anemones in-
habiting tropical seas, evidently on the best of terms
with their hosts. And this association may be shown
to be rather inexplicable, in one sense at least, if we
consider that the slightest touch is usually sufficient
to cause the tentacles and mouth of sea-anemones to
close upon foreign objects. Unfortunately crabs,
for example, which chance in their peregrinations to
stumble against a large sea-anemone, are quickly
drawn into the mouth by the tentacles and swallowed.
Noting this very natural feature of anemone-charac-
ter, it seems curious to think of such a dainty morsel
as a fish being permitted to swim at its ease literally
within the stomach-sac, and within easy and tempt-
ing reach of its strange neighbor.

4. But this very kind of association evinces fur-
ther curious characteristics; for observers have noted
a little fish that not only lives within the Dahlia
Wartlet Sea-anemone, but actually permits the anem-
one to contract itself, and to inclose it in its
fleshy tomb without injury. Another sea-anemone
— the Adamsia palliata — the pretty little " Cloak-
anemone " of our English coasts, offers a most inex-
plicable case of companionship in its habitual associa-
tion with a certain species of Hermit-crab — the Pa-
gurus Prideauxii. The Hermit or Soldier Crabs are

SOME CURIOUS ANIMAL COMPANIONSHIPS. 8T

"well-known dwellers on the sea-beach, and ensconce
themselves on the cast-off shells of whelks and other
mollusks, for the purpose of protecting their soft
bodies. On the shell which protects this veritable
hermit, the cloak-anemone may almost certainly be
found; and it is to be noted that only this species of
crab, and the equally definite and single species of
anemone, are the two beings which respectively form
the association. The unvarying nature of the species
is, in fact, as remarkable a feature in the case as the
invariable nature of the companionship. And not
only does the hermit crab appear tacitly and simply
to tolerate his living burden, with which, like Sind-
bad the Sailor and the Old Han of the Sea, he per-
sistently crawls about, but he also appears to exhibit
a certain care and affection for the anemone. He has
been noticed to feed the anemone with his pincer-like
claws; and when — as is the custom of these animals
— the crab casts away his shell, to seek another and
larger abode, he has been seen carefully to detach the
helpless anemone from the old habitation, and to assist
it in gaining a firm basis and support on the new shell.
Another species of hermit similarly makes a com-
panion of another kind of anemone; the latter subsist-
ing on the food-particles furnished by its host. These
details may pardonably suggest to us the idea that
there may be, after all, much that is identical in the
motives of even such lower forms as hermit-crabs,
"with the actions which we are accustomed, perhaps
too exclusively, to regard as peculiar to ourselves.

5. The familiar little Pea-crabs, or Pinnotheres
— so named from the small size of their bodies—

88 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

present instances of a copartnership with salt-water
mussels, the explanation of which is very hard indeed
to find. Within the bodies of these mussels and of
other mollusks, and within the folds of the structure
which both lines and forms the shell, and which is
appropriately named the " mantle," these little Pea-
crabs appear to lodge in a perfectly natural and accus-
tomed manner. As far as long-continued custom and
habit are concerned, the Pea-crabs may well have be-
come accustomed to their surroundings; for we find
that Pliny of old, with other classical observers, was fa-
miliar with the fact of their unusual residence, and
speculated on the causes which induced these ani-
mals to select their abodes. This old naturalist
quaintly informs us that the mollusk being " a clumsy
animal without eyes," opens its shell, and thereby
allows other fishes to enter; and we are further in-
formed that " the Pinnothere (or Pea-crab), seeing his
dwelling invaded by strangers, pinches his host, who
immediately closes his shell, and kills, one after an-
other, these presumptuous visitors, that he may eat
them at his leisure." Thus, the pea-crab is accredited
at once with the virtue of efficient watchfulness and
with the vice of jealousy; and so the case appears clear
enough to this old naturalist, on the assumption that
pea-crabs and mollusks are actuated by much the same
motives as ourselves. The fact, however, of an active
little body like the crab being allowed peacefully and
naturally to dwell within the delicate, and usually
irritable tissues of the well-known mussel, has as yet
admitted of no satisfactory explanation at the hands
of modern zoologists. Pea-crabs are also found living

SOME CURIOUS ANIMAL COMPANIONSHIPS. 89

within those curious marine animals possessing bag-
shaped bodies, and known as " sea-squirts; " the crab
dwelling within the breathing-chamber of its host.
The author has noticed the crab to emerge from the
mouth-opening of .the sea-squirt to feed in an aqua-
rium, in which its host was a tenant; the crab-guest
beating a hasty retreat to its shelter on being alarmed.
Pea-crabs measuring over half an inch in length may
frequently be taken from mussels of not by any means
large proportions.

6. The great insect-class exemplifies many re-
markable associations, most of which, however, are ex-
amples of parasitism. For instance, a curious rela-
tionship subsists between ants and certain species of
beetles. Indeed, some species of beetles which are
totally blind, are nowhere to be found save in the
■nests of certain kinds of ants. These beetles are
further known to be carefully tended by the ants, who
at once attack any intruder into their nests, however
nearly allied the latter may be to their blind friends.
This instance of companionship is more mysterious
than the well-known friendship that exists between
ants and plant-lice, since the beetles do not, so far as
observation has gone, furnish any secretion to, or
otherwise benefit their hosts. One species of these
blind beetles (Claviger Duvalii) is only found within
the nests of a species of ant — the Lasius niger.
Some ant-nests of this species may, however, be desti-
tute of these beetle-visitors; and when the latter are
artificially introduced into such guestless homes, the
ants at once kill them. M. Lespes, who has given us
these details, thinks that the latter fact may be ac-

90 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

counted for by the supposition that some ant-colonies
are more highly "civilized" than others; but this
explanation is more ingenious than probable or satis-
factory.

7. Among fishes, many examples of association
with other fishes of widely different kinds, and for
reasons not always apparent or explainable, are also
to be found. The large, ungainly-looking fish pos-
sessing a very large head and wide mouth, frequently
cast up on our shores after storms, and known as the
Angler-fish or Fishing-frog (Lophius piscatorius), ap-
pears in many cases to give shelter, as a willing or un-
willing host, to a kind of eel, which lives within its
capacious gill-chambers. The eel-guest doubtless sub-
sists on the food-particles which may find access to its
abode, from the equally capacious mouth. The well-
known Pilot-fish has received its name from its sup-
posed habit of piloting sharks toward their prey;
while, as was believed by the ancients, it also warned
the sea-monster against dangers of all kinds. Of the
mere fact of the companionship between sharks and
the pilot-fish, there can be no doubt; but it seems to
be doubtful if the attendance is of the disinterested
kind just alluded to; as the contents of the stomach
in the pilot-fish, we are told, generally consist of food
which it has picked up for itself. It is therefore not
a mere parasite, but may probably follow the shark
from the expectation that its chances of picking up
food are greatest in the neighborhood of so powerful
a caterer.

8. The Remora or sucking-fish, in virtue of pos-
sessing a peculiar sucker on the top of its head, forms

SOME CURIOUS ANIMAL COMPANIONSHIPS. 91

associations with other fishes, probably as an aid to loco-
motion. Fixed to the body of another fish, this cling-
ing companion is saved all further trouble of move-
ment on its own account, and roams wheresoever its
foster-friend may list. The ancients, it is curious to
note, thoroughly believed in the powers of the remora
to detain, by an exercise of immense or supernatural
strength, any objects to which it might attach itself.
Antony's ship at the battle of Actium, was reported to
have been held fast by a remora, and the vessel of
Caligula was alleged to have been similarly arrested.
The fish itself attains the length of twelve or thirteen
inches, and somewhat resembles a herring in its gen-
eral shape.

9. In the class of birds, many notable examples
of curious likes and dislikes of personal kind, if we
may so style them, may be found. For while in some
cases the friendly companionships are very evident, so
no less are examples of aversions and dislikes. The
cuckoos thus present us with curious instances of semi-
parasitic habits, in their invasion of the nests of. other
birds for the purpose of depositing their eggs; and
the association between - the birds known as Ox-
peckers (Buphagd) and cattle, is no less curious in its
details, even if we consider that the reasons for the
companionship are of very evident kind. The ox-
peckers form a group of Perching Birds, inhabiting
Africa; a familiar species being the Common Ox-
pecker (Buphaga Africana) ; and their popular name,
together with the designation — not applied to birds
alone — of Beef-eaters, has been given to them from
their habits of following herds of cattle in great num-

92 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

bers, and of perching on the backs of their bovine
neighbors, for the purpose of extracting the larvae, or
caterpillar-forms of the troublesome bot-flies. The
eggs of these flies being deposited in the back of the
ox, and usually in a part which the animal is unable
to reach with his tongue, give rise to a troublesome
swelling, known as " worble," within which the young
insects undergo part of their development. The ox-
pecker alighting on the back of the ox, soon contrives,
by aid of his powerful and peculiarly shaped bill, to
extract the larvce — an operation seemingly conducted
with gentleness and skill, and apparently relished,
as a relief from pain, by the subject of the operation;
the oxen evincing no uneasiness or objection, conse-
quent on the attentions of these birds. In like man-
ner, starlings in our own country befriend sheep by
ridding them of troublesome larvce. In short, it
would be difficult to find more typical cases of true co-
operation for the purposes of mutual benefit, than
those before us.

Andrew Wilson, " Sketches of Animal Life and Habits."

TO THE SKYLAEK.

1. Hail to thee, blithe spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
•In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.

TO THE SKYLARK. 93

2. Higher still and higher

From the earth thou springest,
Like a cloud of fire;

The deep blue thou wingest,
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest...

3. In the golden lightning

Of the setting sun
O'er which clouds are brightening,
Thou dost float and run;
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.

4. The pale purple even

Melts around thy flight;
Like a star of heaven,
In the broad daylight
Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight.

5. Keen as are the arrows

Of that silver sphere,
Whose intense lamp narrows
In the white dawn clear,
Until we hardly see, we feel that it is there.

6. All the earth and air

"With thy voice is loud,
As, when night is bare,
From one lonely cloud
The moon rains out her beams, and heaven is over-
flowed.

94 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

7. What thou art we know not;

What is most like thee?
From rainbow clouds there flow not
Drops so bright to see,
As from thy presence showers a rain of melody.

8. Like a poet hidden

In the light of thought,
Singing hymns unbidden,
Till the world is wrought
To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not;

9. Like a high-born maiden

In a palace tower,
Soothing her love-laden
Soul in secret hour
With music sweet as love, which overflows her bower;

10. Like a glow-worm golden,

In a dell of dew,
Scattering unbeholden
Its aerial hue
Among the flowers and grass which screen it from the
view;

11. Like a rose embowered

In its own green leaves,
By warm winds deflowered,
Till the scent it gives
Makes faint with too much sweet these heavy-winged
thieves.

TO THE SKYLARK. 95

12. Sound of vernal showers

On the twinkling grass,
Rain-awakened flowers,
All that ever was
Joyous and fresh and clear thy music doth surpass.

13. Teach us, sprite or bird,

What sweet thoughts are thine;
I have never heard
Praise of love or wine
That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine.

14. Chorus hymeneal,

Or triumphant chant,
Matched with thine, would he all
But an empty vaunt, —
A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want.

15. "What objects are the fountains

Of thy happy strain?
What fields, or waves, or mountains?
What shapes of sky or plain?
What love of thine own kind? What ignorance of
pain?

16. With thy clear, keen joyance

Languor cannot be:
Shadows of annoyance
Never come near thee:
Thou Iovest; but ne'er knew love's sad satiety.

96 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

17. Waking or asleep,

Thou of death must deem
Things more true and deep
Than we mortals dream,
Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream?

18. We look before and after,

And pine for what is not; -
Our sincerest laughter

With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest
thought.

19. Tet if we could scorn

Hate and pride and fear,
If we were things born
Not to shed a tear,
I know not how thy joy we ever should come near.

20. Better than all measures

Of delightful sound,
Better than all treasures
That in books are found,
Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground!

21. Teach me half the gladness

That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow,
The world should listen then, as I am listening now.

Shelley.

Bureau Nature Study,

COLLECTING IN CEYLON. 97

COLLECTING IN CEYLON.

1. The first expedition on the Bay of Belligam
convinced me that it abounded in pelagic animals of
widely dissimilar classes. The jars into which the
swimming inhabitants of the surface water were emp-
tied from the gauze net were quite full after a few
hours' fishing. Among thousands of infinitesimal
crabs and salpm floated delicate medusae and siphono-
phora; multitudes of snail and mussel larvw glided,
by means of their dainty streamers, among fluttering
sea-butterflies and Pteropodaj while hundreds of
coral and crustacean larvw were falling prey to rapa-
cious arrow-worms. The majority of these organisms
are colorless and of the crystalline transparency of the
sea-water in which they struggle desperately for exist-
ence.

2. Although some of the species found here were
new to me, I was familiar with most of the genera,
for the prolific Mediterranean — especially the famous
Strait of Messina — furnishes just such pelagic curi-
osities when the conditions are favorable for surface-
water fishing. Still, among the old acquaintances I
met with in the Bay of Belligam, I noticed a number
of new and attractive forms that provoked immediate
microscopic observation. Consequently I ordered
my men to row quickly back to the shore, and while
we were scudding through the water I devoted myself
to an examination of my newly-acquired treasures.
To my great disappointment I found at least half of

8

98 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

the delicate captives dead and dying; some were over-
taken by death in half an hour, others in less than
fifteen minutes after they were taken from the bay.
Their crystal bodies speedily clouded, and formed a
white powdery mass on the bottom of the jars, and
before we reached the shore I could detect the peculiar
odor which proceeds from gelatinous bodies in a state
of decomposition. In the Mediterranean, under
similar circumstances, death is not followed by decom-
position until after a period of five to ten hours; here,
with a higher temperature by several degrees it took
place in half an hour's time. Alarmed by this dis-
covery I hastened our return to the land, which we
reached shortly before twelve o'clock. Here another
difficulty presented itself: notwithstanding the mid-
day sun's fierce heat, almost the entire population of
Belligam was assembled on the strand to learn the
result of my extraordinary method of fishing. Each
one of the dusky throng wanted to see what I had
caught, and wanted to know what I was going to do
with it — or, rather, in what shape I was going to
devour it; for, that sea-creatures were captured for
any other purpose than a dietary one of course never
entered their heads. Consequently the amazement
of the inquisitive natives, among whom I made my
way with great difficulty, was by no means small when
they beheld merely the white sediment on the bottom
of the large glass jars, and the few tiny pelagic crea-
tures that were still actively disporting themselves in
their new quarters. Afterward the Arachy, the sec-
ond head man of Belligam, informed me that his
fellow-citizens could not understand, or indeed believe,

COLLECTING IN CEYLON. 99

that I was engaged in merely scientific work; most of
them detected behind all this mysterious business some
sort of witchcraft, the preparing of magic potions, etc.,
while the realistic Belligamians believed I was trying
to invent a new curry. The still more enlightened
were confident that I was simply a European lunatic.

3. Thus a valuable quarter of an hour was lost
before I could force my way through the curious
skeptics to the rest-house, and — as was my wont — to
sort and distribute the thousand dainty creatures in
glass vessels of fresh water. By this time at least
nine-tenths of my treasures were dead, and among
them the new ones whose forms had particularly inter-
ested me. The remaining tenth were already so ex-
hausted that death seemed imminent at any moment,
and in a few hours my jars were in fact nothing but
huge receptacles for pelagic corpses! The following
days I sought by every means to counteract the fatal
influence of the tropical sun, but was only partially
successful. It was simply impossible to maintain the
necessary low temperature of the water. I was con-
vinced that the first and most important requirements
for the successful observation of marine fauna in so
hot a country as Ceylon would be cool rooms and re-
frigerating water vessels. As large quantities of ice,
which was formerly imported from North America,
are now manufactured in Colombo by an artificial pro-
cess at much less expense, it would not be a very
difficult matter to arrange cool apartments, and re-
frigerated aquaria. But a considerable sum of money
would be necessary for such a project, and that is not
at my disposal. A second important requirement for

100 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

successful zoological study in these refrigerated work-
rooms would be glass windows — conveniences which
are almost entirely unknown in Ceylon.

4. In the rest-house at Belligam, as well as in all
the dwellings on the island, their place is supplied by
wooden shutters or jalousies, at the top of which, as
well as along the edges of the ceiling, and above the
doors, are wide spaces to admit the air. For the
purpose of ventilation these openings are of course
very practical and comfortable, but for the naturalist,
who is obliged to use a microscope, they are as objec-
tionable as detrimental. All sorts of winged and
creeping insects have free ingress; the most trouble-
some are the swarms of flies, gnats, ants, and termites.
Then the draught wafts your papers about, covers the
instruments with dust, and frequently a more vigorous
breeze displaces everything in the room. No less
detrimental are the jalousies themselves to a good
light, which is one of the most important requisites
for microscopic examinations — especially when it is
necessary to increase the magnifying power. Yery
often the condition of the sun and wind make it impos-
sible for me to find a suitable corner for my work-table
— either in the darkened room, or on the all-too-breezy
veranda, whose wide projecting roof was also a decid-
edly objectionable feature.

5. To these and various other local obstructions
to zoological study, may be added the annoyances
arising from the curiosity of my neighbors. Never
having seen any of the wonderful instruments I had
brought to their village, the worthy Belligamians
naturally wanted to know all about them, what they

COLLECTING IN CEYLON. 101

were intended for, and how I used them. In short,
everything I did was for them a continual source of
amusement. Like all semi-civilized peoples, the
Cingalese are in many respects mere children. Be-
neficent Nature has made the conditions of their para-
disal island so favorable that the struggle for exist-
ence on it is comparatively easy, while actual toil is
almost unknown. Innocent games and chatter form
their principal amusements, consequently every new
object becomes a source of interest. The too-frequent
visits of my inquisitive neighbors at last became such
an intolerable nuisance that I was obliged to speak of
it to some of the more important personages in the
village. Steps were at once taken to remedy the evil;
the masses were excluded from the rest-house, but the
visits of the important personages before mentioned
became all the more frequent and of longer duration.
The " doctor " was especially interested in my micro-
scope; the " tax-gatherer " took a wonderful fancy to
my paint-box; the " magistrate " professed great ad-
miration for the anatomical instruments (as imple-
ments of torture, perhaps!); the "schoolmaster"
liked to examine my books, and so on. Everything
I owned was felt, tested, and examined a thousand
times, and quite as many nonsensical questions asked
about each article. Seeing how intensely curious my
constantly increasing collections made the worthy
Belligamians, I undertook to satisfy what I believed
to be an earnest desire for information. At stated
hours on certain days I delivered a series of formal
lectures with copious illustrations — an expedient
which had been employed with flattering success while

102 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

fishing on the Mediterranean — but my native audi-
ences would not believe half I told them, nor would
they try to understand what I took great pains to ex-
plain. I soon became convinced that the childish in-
quisitiveness of the Cingalese had not yet developed
into a true desire for knowledge, and that the causative
coherence of phenomena had very little attraction for
these innocent children!

G. It would weary the reader were I to enumerate
all the hindrances that opposed my zoological labors
in the primitive laboratory at Belligam. Without
the aid of a competent European assistant, I was
obliged to depend entirely on my own exertions, and
much valuable time was lost in the performance of
extra work, which would not have been the case had I
been engaged in a similar task on the European coast.
Besides, the time I had to spend in Ceylon was entirely
too short for the accomplishment of what I had origi-
nally intended: a series of coherent investigations of
the history of evolution. Consequently, what I had
at first deplored — that the number of new and peculiar
sea animals in the Bay of Belligam was not nearly so
large as I had expected — proved in the end a real con-
solation. The extensive marine investigations of the
last twenty years (especially those conducted by the
" Challenger " expedition) conclusively demonstrate,
that the diversity of form among the inhabitants of
the different oceans is nothing like so great as
the difference between the inhabitants of the dif-
ferent continents. Of this fact my own investiga-
tions at Belligam were only additional proof. Of
course I found a large number of new, and some very

COLLECTING IN CEYLON. 103

interesting animal forms — chiefly among the lower
divisions of marine fauna — radiolarians, infusoria,
sponges, corals, medusae, and siphonophora — but they
only furnished further evidence that the fauna of the
surface-water of the Indian Ocean, as well as that
along its shores, was closely allied to the better-known
sea-animal world of the tropical Pacific Ocean; for in-
stance, Philippine and Fiji Islands.

7. If in spite of all hindrances I amassed a con-
siderable zoological collection in Belligam, and
brought back to Jena far more material for study
than I can hope to master in the remaining years of
my life, then I owe the greater part of it to the
indefatigable zeal of my faithful Ganymede, whose
highest ambition was to enrich my collection with
land- and sea-creatures of all sorts. Through his in-
fluence a number of boys were engaged to collect for
me, and the curiosity trade with these little fellows
soon assumed a very pleasant as well as profitable char-
acter. At stated periods a whole army of nude grace-
ful lads would wait on me at the rest-house. One
dusky little god would bring a pair of exquisitely-
tinted fishes, another a curious sea-star or sea-urchin,
a third would offer a huge black scorpion or milliped,
a fourth would display a pair of gorgeous butterflies
or beetles, and so on. The 'entertaining scenes always
recalled similar ones I had enjoyed on the Mediter-
ranean shore, especially at Naples and Messina. But
how different the behavior of the little traders here
and there! The Italian boys extolled their wares in
loud, noisy tones, and with native eloquence fre-
quently delivered long and flowery speeches eulogistic

104 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

of their perfections. They asked ten times as much
as the articles were worth, and were never satisfied
even when I paid the exorbitant prices they demanded.
On the other hand, the little Cingalese would shyly
and respectfully lay their wares before me, and wait
in silence to hear what I would offer for them. As a
general thing they would be satisfied with a trifling
coin, but they would be particularly delighted when
I gave them any of the articles I had brought with me
from Europe for bartering purposes.

8. Unfortunately I had neither time nor the appli-
ances necessary to preserve all the interesting natural
curiosities I collected in this manner. Here again
the tropical climate arid destructive insects presented
insuperable difficulties — especially when I attempted
to dry anything. To throughly dry organic sub-
stances in such a humid atmosphere is one of the
most difficult problems, for even the very air is filled
with moisture, and a specimen that is already dry will
mould and slowly decompose. It is absolutely impos-
sible to sufficiently dry many objects. Although I
hung the skins of the birds and mammals I had shot
and taken so much trouble to prepare in the sun for
weeks, every night would thoroughly drench them
with moisture. -

9. More hostile still to the drying of natural
curiosities than the humid atmosphere, are the legions
of destructive insects. No place, no object, is safe
from these pests. Even were there no chinks every-
where in the walls through which all sorts of creeping
and flying beasties, as well as the humid air, have free
ingress, it would still be impossible to protect one's self

COLLECTING IK CEYLON. 105

from their attacks. Nothing can withstand the
assault of their powerful jaws; they will force an
entrance through anything — the walls, the roof, and
the stone floor, which they skillfully undermine. Fre-
quently on rising in the morning one is astonished to
find conical heaps of earth which have been flung up
between the flagstones during the night by the indus-
trious termite, or ant sappers and miners. I was con-
vinced of the energy and dispatch with which these
minute enemies accomplish their work before the end
of my first month in Belligam. I had accumulated
in these four weeks a handsome collection of dried but-
terflies and beetles, skins of birds and mammals, curi-
ous fruits and specimens of woods, ferns, and other
interesting plants, and locked them — securely, as I
imagined — in a small side-room of the rest-house.
Almost every day I visited my treasures, to see
whether the enemy had made any inroads upon them,
and took good care always to destroy the advance-
guard of the termite and ant armies I might find recon-
noitering on my territory. By generous applications
of camphor, naphtha, and carbolic acid I imagined I
had sufficiently protected my treasures to leave them
for a few days, as an excursion to a distant point, and
some urgent work, would require my attention for that
length of time. How startled was I when at the end
of the third day I entered my well-protected museum,
and found most of my treasures transformed into
heaps of dust and mould ! A dozen regiments of large
red ants had forced an entrance through the roof, sev-
eral divisions of small black ants had entered through
the walls, while a legion of termites had come up

106 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

through the floor, and made a combined assault that
resulted most disastrously for my collection !

Ernst Haeckel, " India and Ceylon.''

THE REINDEER.

1. The Reindeer may well be called the camel of
the northern wastes, for it is a no less valuable com-
panion to the Laplander or to the Samojede than the
" ship of the desert " to the wandering Bedouin. It
is the only member of the numerous deer family that
has been domesticated by man; but though undoubt-
edly the most useful, it is by no means the most
comely of its race. Its clear dark eye has, indeed,
a beautiful expression, but it has neither the noble
proportions of the stag nor the grace of the roebuck,
and its thick square-formed body is far from being
a model of elegance. Its legs are short and thick,
its feet broad but extremely well adapted for walking
over the snow or on a swampy ground. The front
hoofs, which are capable of great lateral expansion,
curve upward, while the two secondary ones behind
(which are but slightly developed in the fallow-deer
and other members of the family) are considerably
prolonged: a structure which, by giving the animal
a broader base to stand upon, prevents it from sink-
ing too deeply into the snow or the morass. Had the
foot of the reindeer been formed like that of our stag,

Reindeer in Norway.

THE REINDEER. 107

it would have been as unable to drag the Laplander's
sledge with such velocity over the yielding snow-fields
as the camel would be to perform his long marches
through the desert without the broad elastic sole-pad
on which he firmly paces the unstable sands.

2. The short legs and broad feet of the reindeer
likewise enable it to swim with greater ease — a power
of no small importance in countries abounding in
rivers and lakes, and where the scarcity of food ren-
ders perpetual migrations necessary. When the rein-
deer walks or merely moves, a remarkable clattering
sound is heard to some distance, about the cause of
which naturalists and travelers by no means agree.
Most probably it results from the great length of the
two digits of the cloven hoof, which when the animal
sets its foot upon the ground separate widely, and
when it again raises its hoof, suddenly clap against
each other. A long mane of a dirty white color hangs
from the neck of the reindeer. In summer the body
is brown above and white beneath; in winter, long-
haired and white. Its antlers are very different from
those of the stag, having broad palmated summits,
and branching back to the length of three or four
feet. Their weight is frequently very considerable —

-twenty or twenty-four pounds; and it is remarkable
that both sexes have horns, while in all other members
of the deer race the males alone are in possession of
this ornament or weapon.

3. The female brings forth in May a single calf,
rarely two. This is small and weak; but after a few
days it follows the mother, who suckles her young
but a short time, as it is soon able to seek and to find

108 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

its food. The reindeer gives very little milk — at the
very utmost, after the young has been weaned, a
bottleful daily; but the quality is excellent, for it
is uncommonly thick and nutritious. It consists al-
most entirely of cream, so that a great deal of water
can be added before it becomes inferior to the best
cow-milk. Its taste is excellent, but the butter made
from it is rancid and hardly to be eaten, while the
cheese is very good.

4. In summer the reindeer lives upon green herbs
or the leaves of trees; in winter his only food consists
of moss, and the most surprising circumstance in his
history is the instinct, or the extraordinary olfactory
powers, whereby he is enabled to discover it when hid-
den beneath the snow. However deep the Lichen
rangiferinus may be buried, the animal is aware of its
presence the moment he comes to the spot, and this
kind of food is never so agreeable to him as when he
digs for it himself. In his manner of doing this he
is remarkably adroit. Having first ascertained, by
thrusting his muzzle into the snow, whether the moss
lies below or not, he begins making a hole with his fore
feet, and continues working until at length he uncov-
ers the lichen. No instance has ever occurred of a
reindeer making such a cavity without discovering the
moss he seeks. Judging from the appearance of the
lichen in the hot months, when it is dry and brittle,
one might easily wonder that so large a quadruped
should make it his favorite food and fatten upon it;
but toward the month of September the lichen be-
comes soft, tender, and damp, with a taste like wheat-
bran. In this state its luxuriant and flowery rami-

THE REINDEER. 109

fications somewhat resemble the leaves of endive, and
are as white as snow.

5. Though domesticated since time immemorial,
the reindeer has only partly been brought under the
yoke of man, and wanders in large wild herds both in
the North American wastes, where it has never yet
been reduced to servitude, and in the forests and tun-
dras of the Old World. In America, where it is
called " caribou," it extends from Labrador to Mel-
ville Island and Washington Land; in Europe and
Asia, it is found from Lapland and Norway, and
from the mountains of Mongolia and the banks of the
Ufa as far as Novaja Zemlya and Spitzbergen. Many
centuries ago — probably during the glacial period —
its range was still more extensive, as reindeer bones
are frequently found in French and German caves,
and bear testimony to the severity of the climate
which at that time prevailed in central Europe, for the
reindeer is a cold-loving animal, and will not thrive
under a milder sky. All attempts to prolong its life
in our zoological gardens have failed; and even in the
royal park at Stockholm Hogguer saw some of these
animals, which were quite languid and emaciated dur-
ing the summer, although care had been taken to pro-
vide them with a cool grotto to which they could re-
tire during the warmer hours of the day. In sum-
mer the reindeer can enjoy health only in the fresh
mountain air or along the bracing sea-shore, and has as
great a longing for a low temperature as man for the
genial warmth of his fireside in winter.

6. The reindeer is easily tamed, and soon gets ac-
customed to its master, whose society it loves, at-

110 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

tracted as it were by a kind of innate sympathy; for,
unlike all other domestic animals, it is by no means
dependent on man for its subsistence, but finds its
nourishment alone, and wanders about freely in sum-
mer and in winter without ever being inclosed in a
stable. These qualities are inestimable in countries
where it would be utterly impossible to keep any do-
mestic animal requiring shelter and stores of provi-
sions during the long winter months, and make the
reindeer the fit companion of the northern nomad,
whose simple wants it almost wholly supplies. Dur-
ing his wanderings, it carries his tent and scanty
household furniture, or drags his sledge over the
snow. On account of the weakness of its backbone,
it is less fit for riding, and requires to be mounted
with care, as a violent shock easily dislocates its verte-
bral column. You would hardly suppose the rein-
deer to be the same animal when languidly creeping
along under a rider's weight, as when, unencumbered
by a load, it vaults with the lightness of a bird over
the obstacles in its way to obey the call of its master.
The reindeer can be easily trained to drag a sledge;
but great care must be taken not to beat or otherwise
ill-treat it, as it then becomes obstinate and quite un-
manageable. When forced to drag too heavy a load,
or taxed in any way above its strength, it not seldom
turns round upon its tyrant, and attacks him with its
horns and fore feet. To save himself from its fury,
he is then obliged to overturn his sledge, and to seek
a refuge under its bottom until the rage of the animal
has .abated.

7. After the death of the reindeer, it may truly be

THE REINDEER. Ill

said that every part of its body is put to some use.
The flesh is very good, and the tongue and marrow
are considered a great delicacy. The blood, of which
not a drop is allowed to be lost, is either drank warm
or made up into a kind of black pudding. The skin
furnishes not only clothing impervious to the cold,
but tents and bedding; and spoons, knife-handles,
and other household utensils are made out of the bones
and horns; the latter serve also, like the claws, for
the preparation of an excellent glue, which the Chi-
nese, who buy them for this purpose of the Russians,
use as a nutritious jelly. In Tornea the skins of new-
born reindeer are prepared and sent to St. Petersburg
to be manufactured into gloves, which are extremely
soft, but very dear. Thus, the cocoa-nut palm, the
tree of a hundred uses, hardly renders a greater va-
riety of services to the islanders of the Indian Ocean
than the reindeer to the Laplander or the Samojede;
and, to the honor of these barbarians be it men-
tioned, they treat their invaluable friend and com-
panion with a grateful affection which might serve
as an example to far more civilized nations.

8. The reindeer attains an age of from twenty to
twenty-five years, but in its domesticated state it is
generally killed when from six to ten years old. Its
most dangerous enemies are the wolf, and the glut-
ton or wolverine (Gulo torealis or arcticus), which
belongs to the bloodthirsty marten and weasel family,
and is said to be of uncommon fierceness and strength.
It is about the size of a large badger, between which
animal and the pole-cat it seems to be intermediate,
nearly resembling the former in its general figure and

112 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

aspect, and agreeing with the latter as to its dentition.
No dog is capable of mastering a glutton, and even the
wolf is hardly able to scare it from its prey. Its feet
are very short, so that it cannot run swiftly; but it
climbs with great facility upon trees, or ascends even
' almost perpendicular rock-walls, where it also seeks
a refuge when pursued.

9. When it perceives a herd of reindeer browsing
near a wood or a precipice, it generally lies in wait
upon a branch or some high cliff, and springs down
upon the first animal that comes within its reach.
Sometimes also it steals unawares upon its prey, and,
suddenly bounding upon its back, kills it by a single
bite in the neck. Many fables worthy of Miineh-
hausen have been told about its voracity; for instance,
that it is able to devour two reindeer at one meal, and
that, when its stomach is exorbitantly distended with
food, it will press itself between two trees or stones to
make room for a new repast. It will, indeed, kill in
one night six or eight reindeer; but it contents itself
with sucking their blood, as the weasel does with
fowls, and eats no more at one meal than any other
carnivorous animal of its own size.

10. Besides the attacks of its mightier enemies,
the reindeer is subject to the persecutions of two spe-
cies of gadfly, which torment it exceedingly. The
one (CEstrus tarandi), called Hurbma by the Lap-
landers, deposits its glutinous eggs upon the animal's
back. The larvae on creeping out, immediately bore
themselves into the skin, where by their motion and
suction they cause so many small swellings or boils,
which gradually grow to the size of an inch or more

GIANTS AND PYGMIES. 113

in diameter, with an opening at the top of each,
through which the larva may be seen imbedded in a
purulent fluid. Frequently the whole back of the
animal is covered with these boils, which, by draining
its fluids, produce emaciation and disease. As if
aware of this danger, the reindeer runs wild and furi-
ous as soon as it hears the buzzing of the fly, and seeks
a refuge in the nearest water. The other species of
gadfly {CEstrus nasalis) lays its eggs in the nostrils
of the reindeer; and the larvce, boring themselves
into the fauces and beneath the tongue of the poor
animal, are a great source of annoyance, as is shown
by its frequent sniffling and shaking of the head.
A pestilential disorder like the rinderpest will some-
times sweep away whole herds. Thus in a few weeks
a rich Laplander or Samojede may be reduced to
poverty, and the proud possessor of several thousands
of reindeer be compelled to seek the precarious liveli-
hood of the northern fisherman.

G. Haetwig, "The Polar World."

GIANTS AND PYGMIES.

1. Natuee presents everywhere the most opposite
extremes. Birds have also their pygmies and their
giants, their idlers and indefatigable workers. Their
habits display, side by side, imbecility and intelli-
gence, solitude and family life. Often in the tropical
regions, where the sun darts his fiercest rays, we may
9

114 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

see flitting over the flowers brilliant birds, which
sweep rapidly past like a spark of topaz or ruby; these
are the humming-birds, living diamonds, slighter than
some insects, and which often become the prey of
huge spiders. The giant of this group scarcely at-
tains the bigness of a sparrow, and the smallest hardly
surpasses in size a humblebee. Hence, to the hum-
ming-birds, as they are commonly called, each speck
of creation is a world. A simple leaf suffices for the
gambols of a whole family; a flower is the perfumed
throne on which the nuptials are accomplished, and
the petals of its corolla spread out to form a velvet
canopy which hides their chaste loves.

2. Were we to compare the size of different birds,
we should arrive at wonderful results. Lacepede,
who doubtless could not boast of being as exact as
Archimedes, calculated that it would require a thou-
sand millions of shrew-mice to equal a whale in
weight. If that were true, we should also have to
pile up some millions of humming-birds to weigh
against the heavy ostrich, but it again is only a puny
animal compared with two ornithological marvels, the
discovery of which we owe to the illustrious zoologists
Prof. Owen and Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. One
of them, the gigantic Dinornis of New Zealand, a
part of the skeleton of which is in the museum of the
London College of Surgeons, was eighteen feet high.
The bone of a man's leg is only a slender spindle com-
pared to that of this colossal bird.

3. The disappearance of this monstrous animal
dates from no very distant epoch, and everything at-
tests that the first inhabitants of New Zealand were

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GIANTS AND PYGMIES. 115

perfectly acquainted with it. The ancient legends of
the island tell us that at the time of its discovery it
was full of birds of appalling size. There are also an-
cient poems there in which the father teaches his
son how to hunt the Moa, the name belonging of old
to this species; in these are described the ceremonies
which took place when one had been killed. They
feasted on the flesh and eggs, while the feathers served
to adorn the arms of the vanquishers. Some hills
are yet strewn with the bones of the Dinornis, the re-
mains of these great feasts of the hunters.

4. Another colossal bird, the Epiornis, which for-
merly lived in Madagascar, must have been of even
greater size. One of its eggs, which is now in the
museum at Paris, is six times as large as that of the
ostrich, and it has been calculated that to fill the cavity
would require twelve thousand humming-birds' eggs.
Its shell, two millimeters thick, could only be broken
by a blow with a hammer. What strength, then, must
the beak of the young bird have possessed to be able
to make a hole in it! What differences also in
strength are found in birds!

5. When fleeing before the hunter, whose Arab
steed presses it closer and closer, the alarmed and
-furious ostrich tears the soil of the desert, clinging to

it, and leaving deep marks beneath each footstep,
while it launches afar a cloud of sand and pebbles.
When, on the contrary, a flock of humming-birds, at-
tracted by the expanded and floating flowers of the
Regia Victoria, play and gleam round them like a
casket of topazes and rubies struck by the rays of the
sun, neither the smooth surface of the lake nor the

116 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

beautiful flowers are in the least degree disturbed.
And when one of these winged diamonds perches itself
upon a petal of their virgin corolla, it does not even
stir it. Again, when the fragile bird takes flight, its
tiny claw has not injured the velvet softness of the
flower. It might have lighted upon one of the twigs
of the modest sensitive plant without this taking any
alarm.

6. The secretary-bird, on the contrary — a power-
ful bird of prey belonging to Africa, incessantly oc-
cupied in combating reptiles, with one blow of its
wing stuns a tortoise or a threatening serpent. The
swan, with the same arm, can break a man's leg, or,
as has been sometimes seen, dash him headlong into
the water. The bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus),
some zoologists tell us, attacks the hunters unawares
in the dangerous passes of the Alps, and occasionally
gives them a great deal of trouble. And the eagle
in its bold flight carries children through the fields of
air, and crushes them in the mountain precipices.

7. If we examine the form which our winged
architects give to their nuptial couches, or the ma-
terials of which they build them, we see that they
vary infinitely. Some birds, like the eagles and gos-
hawks, which build their eyries in the midst of soli-
tude and rocks, only employ in their construction
rough fragments of stick heaped up in disorder; others
make use of leaves and moss, which they arrange with
skill. But such materials are still too coarse for the
delicate bodies of the humming-birds, which pour
along in swarms. They, as for example the saw-
beaked humming-bird, often construct for themselves

THE BLOOD HORSE. 117

a downy charming little cup of cotton, wherein to
shelter their jewelry of emeralds without sullying the
luster of them. Other species of the same group,
which also make use of soft pillows, garnish the out-
side of their nests with fragments of lichens, doubt-
less to hide it better from the animals of prey that live
in the midst of the foliage. This is the case with the
mango humming-bird — the black-plastron humming-
bird of Buffon.

P. A. Pouchet, " The Universe.''

THE BLOOD HORSE.

1. Gamaeea is a dainty steed,
Strong, black, and of a noble breed,
Full of fire, and full of bone,
With all his line of fathers known;
Fine his nose, his nostrils thin,

But blown abroad by the pride within!
His mane is like a river flowing,
And his eyes like embers glowing
In the darkness of the night,
And his pace as swift as light.

2. Look, — how round his straining throat
Grace and shifting beauty float;
Sinewy strength is in his reins,

And the red blood gallops through his veins :

118 THE ANIMAL "WORLD.

Kicher, redder, never ran.
Through the boasting heart of man.
He can trace his lineage higher
Than the Bourbon dare aspire, —
Douglas, Guzman, or the Guelph,
Or O'Brien's blood itself!

3. He, who hath no peer, was born
Here, upon a red March morn.
But his famous fathers dead
"Were Arabs all, and Arab-bred,
And the last of that great line
Trod like one of a race divine!
And yet,— he was but friend to one
Who fed him at the set of sun
By some lone fountain fringed with green ;
With him, a roving Bedouin,
He lived (none else would he obey
Through all the hot Arabian day),
And died untamed upon the sands
Where Balkh amid the desert stands.

Bryan W. Procter.

EDIBLE INSECTS.

1. The Crustacea afford in the northern lobster,
the spiny lobster of the tropics, and numerous kinds
of shrimps and crabs, many choice bits for our larder.
Whether, however, any .of the insects, or their allies

EDIBLE INSECTS. 119

the spiders, or even the worms, will ever afford food
to civilized man is a matter of grave doubt. While
the bulk of our animal food is given us by the verte-
brated animals, the ox, sheep, fowl, and game being
our main dependence, the mollusks afford us the deli-
cious oyster which we shall never be able to give up,
the less aristocratic clam, handed over to the Pilgrim
Fathers by the Sagamores and their followers, the de-
licious though rare scallop and the quahaug, while
mussels, snails, and whelks regale our transatlantic
friends. Honey is universally sought, and that is
an insect product, but the flesh of insects is, upon the
whole, repugnant to our feelings. This is certainly
unreasonable, for multitudes of the locust or grass-
hopper of the East are eaten by Arabs and the sav-
ages in other parts of Africa. We look with repug-
nance upon a roasted grasshopper, but an Arab is said
to have expressed his abhorrence at our eating raw
oysters. While in their sudden nights the grasshop-
pers cover the ground and eat up every green thing,
the natives adopt the sensible course of devouring
them in turn. The Bushman, who is no farmer,
sings:

" Yea, even the wasting locust-swarm,

Which mighty nations dread,
To me nor terror brings nor harm ;

I make of them my bread."

2. He collects them, according to Andersson, by
lighting large fires directly in the path of their swarms.
As the insects pass over the flames, their wings are
scorched and they fall helplessly to the ground. They
are also, he says, collected by cartloads when they have

120 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

retired to rest. " The locusts, after being partially
roasted, are eaten fresh, or they are dried in the hot
ashes, and then stored away for future emergencies.
The natives reduce them also to powder, or meal, hy
means of two stones or a wooden mortar, which powder,
when mixed with water, produces a kind of soup or
stirabout. I have tasted locusts prepared in various
ways, but I cannot say that I have found them very
palatable. But they must contain a vast deal of nour-
ishment, since the poor people thrive wonderfully on
them." He also states that "the Cape Colony has been
particularly subject to this dreadful scourge, which
is invariably followed by famine. The inroads of the
locusts are periodical; according to Pringle, about
once every fifteen years. In 1808, after having laid
waste a considerable portion of the country, they dis-
appeared and did not return until 1824. They then
remained for several years, but in 1830 took their de-
parture." The locust is truly migratory, the unde-
veloped partially winged young moving from one
region to another. He quotes from Barrow, who
says that " the larvce at the same time were emigrating
to the northward. The column of these imperfect
insects passed the houses of two of our party, who
assured me that it continued moving forward without
any interruption, except by night, for more than a
month."

3. Of very similar habits is our red-legged grass-
hopper (Caloptenus femur-rubrum). It appears at
intervals in immense swarms. In 1871 it was very
destructive to grass in northern Maine, seriously dam-
aging the hay crop. It has also swarmed in Canada.

EDIBLE INSECTS. 121

Dr. Harris enumerates its visitations in New England
in the last century when it devoured every green
thing. The habits of this species are not well known,
except that it appears in midsummer in the winged
state. The wingless larvae appear in June, and, as
Harris recommends, hay crops should he mown early,
before the insects fly in swarms. The last of summer
they couple and lay their eggs in holes in the earth,
where they are hatched in the spring.

4. As Harris suggests, this insect can only be kept
under by concerted action on the part of farmers.
" In the south of France the people make a business,
at certain seasons of the year (probably in the autumn
and late in the spring), of collecting locusts and their
eggs, the latter being turned out of the ground in little
masses, cemented and covered with a sort of gum in
which they are enveloped by the insects." Various
forms of drag-nets can be invented for collecting them
in large numbers, and run, if necessary, through a
field by horse power. The inventive genius of our
farmers will easily suggest methods of gathering these
insects by the bushel, when they can be thrown into
hot water, and fed to swine. An entomological friend
has found by his own experience that roasted grass-
hoppers are excellent eating — " better than frogs."
Only let some enterprising genius of the kitchen once
set the example of offering to his customers roasted
grasshoppers, rare-done, and fricasseed canker worms
(for we have it on the word of an entomologist that
caterpillars are pleasing to the palate of man), and
these droves of entomological beeves will perchance
supplant their vertebrate rivals at the shambles, and

122 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

instead of cattle fairs, we shall have grasshopper festi-
vals, and county caterpillar shows.

5. Of other insects eaten by man we may instance
the humblebee, whose body is often sacrificed to the
love of boys for sweets, who since Shakespeare's time
have searched for the " well bestratted bee's sweet
bag " ; while in Ceylon bees are eaten bodily as food.
Some kinds of ants are eaten by the Indians of the
Gulf coast of Mexico. Sumichrast says that " the
natives eat the females after having detached the
thorax " ; and Humboldt tells us that ants are eaten
by the Indians of South America. Kirby speaks from
his own experience: he says that "ants have no un-
pleasant flavor; they are very agreeably acid, and the
taste of the trunk and abdomen is different." He re-
fers to the fact that " in some parts of Sweden ants
are distilled along with rye to give a flavor to the
inferior kinds of brandy." Certain galls are esteemed
in Constantinople for their aromatic and acid taste,
and Keaumur says that the galls of the ground ivy
have been eaten in France, but he thinks it doubtful
if they ever rank with good fruits.

6. " Among the delicacies of a Boshies-man's
table," says Kirby, " Sparrman reckons those cater-
pillars from which butterflies proceed. The Chinese,
who waste nothing, after they have unwound the
silk from the cocoons of the silkworm, send the chrys-
alis to table: they also eat the larva of a hawk-moth
(Sphinx), some of which tribe, Dr. Darwin tells us,
are, in his opinion, very delicious; and lastly, the na-
tives of New Holland eat the caterpillars of a species
of moth of a singular new genus, to which my friend,

EDIBLE INSECTS. 123

Alexander MacLeay, Esq., has assigned characters,
and from the circumstance of its larva coming out
only in the night to feed, has called it Nycterobius.
A species of butterfly also (Eublcea hamata), as we
learn from Mr. Bennett, congregates on the insulated
granitic rocks in a particular district which he visited
in the months of November, December, and January,
in such countless myriads (with what object is un-
known), that the native blacks, who call them Bugong,
assemble from far and near to collect them, and, after
removing the wings and down by stirring them on
the ground previously heated by a large fire, and win-
nowing them, eat the bodies, or store them up for use
by pounding and smoking them. The bodies of these
butterflies abound in an oil with the taste of nuts; and
when first eaten produce violent vomitings, and other
debilitating effects; but these go off after a few days
and the natives then thrive and fatten exceedingly
on this diet, for which they have to contend with a
black crow, which is also attracted by the Bugongs
in great numbers, and which they despatch with their
clubs, and use as food."

7. The cicada or harvest fly, to which Anacreon
inscribes an ode, was eaten by the Greeks. Aristotle
says that the pupce are most delicious, and after they
change to the winged state the males at first have the
best flavor, while the females are better on account of
the eggs. " Athenseus also and Aristophanes mention
their being eaten; and iEIian is extremely angry with
the men of his age, that an animal sacred to the muses
should be strung, sold and eagerly devoured." Kirby,
from whom we quote, cites Peter Collinson as saying

124 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

that the winged form of the seventeen year cicada
was in his time (1763) eaten by the Indians of
North America. Lastly, the gravid, enormously dis-
tended female of the white ant is regarded as a de-
licious morsel by the Hottentots, and Smeathman
" thought them delicate, nourishing, and wholesome,
being sweeter than the grub of the weevil of the
palms."

8. Roasted spiders are eaten by the natives of New
Caledonia. Kirby says that " even individuals among
the more polished natives of Europe are recorded as
having a similar taste, so that if you could rise above
vulgar prejudices, you would in all probability find
them a most delicious morsel. If you require prece-
dents, Reaumur tells us of a young lady who, when she
walked in her grounds, never saw a spider that she did
not take and crack upon the spot. Another female,
the celebrated Anna Maria Scherman,used to eat them
like nuts, which she affirmed they much resembled in
taste, excusing her propensity by saying that she was
born under the sign Scorpio. If you wish for the
authority of the learned, Lalande, the celebrated
French astronomer, was, as Latreille witnesses, equally
fond of these delicacies." Even the centipedes are
not neglected, as Humboldt records the fact that " he
has seen the Indian children drag out of the earth
centipedes eighteen inches long and more than half
an inch broad, and devour them."

9. Even the eggs of certain insects are eaten. In
Mexico the eggs of the Corixa, or water boatman, are
often used as food, and in the same country the In-
dians prepare a liquor from the Cicindela " by macer-

Argonaut^ or Paper Nautilus.

THE DEVIL-FISH. 125

ating it in water or spirit, which they apparently use
as a stimulating beverage."

A. S. Packard, " Half Hours with Insects."

THE DEVIL-FISH.

1. Among the widely diversified class of marine
creatures known as mollusks, there are none so interest-
ing and captivating to the imagination as the cuttle-
fish, squid, and other cephalopoda, as they are called
in science, from two Greek words, which in their com-
bination mean " feet proceeding from a head," the
most common form of which in our own seas is the
octopus. Victor Hugo, in his remarkable novel of
" The Toilers of the Sea," gives us a picturesquely
terrible narrative of a conflict of his hero with one of
these grewsome monsters of the deep. That portion
of it which describes the octopus, under the name
of pieuvre, or the devil-fish, the title given by the
fishermen of the Channel Islands to this formidable
creature, is worthy of quotation in this connection,
though the poetic exaggeration of the novelist, justi-
fied by art purposes, can hardly be indorsed by science.

2. M. Hugo thus writes: " To believe in the ex-
istence of the devil-fish, one must have seen it. Com-
pared to it, the ancient hydras were insignificant. Or-
pheus, Homer, Hesiod, only imagined the chimsera,
Providence created the octopus. If terror was the ob-
ject of its creation, it is perfection. The devil-fish

126 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

has no muscular organization, no breastplate, no horn,
no dart, no tail with which to hold or bruise, no cut-
ting fins or wings with claws; no prickles, no sword,
no electric discharge, no venom, no talons, no beak,
no teeth. It has no bones, no blood, no flesh. It is
soft and flabby, a skin with nothing inside of it. Its
under surface is yellowish, its upper earthy. Its
dusty hue can neither be imitated nor explained. It
might be called a beast made of ashes which inhabits
the water. Irritated, it becomes violent. It is a
spider in form, a chameleon in coloration. . . . Seized
by this animal, you enter into the beast, the hydra
incorporates itself with the man; the man is amal-
gamated with the hydra. You become one. The
tiger can only devour you; the devil-fish inhales you.
He draws you to him, into him; and, bound and help-
less, you feel yourself slowly emptied into the fright-
ful sac, which is a monster. To be eaten alive is more
than terrible; but to be drunk alive is inexpressible."
3. Before the publication of Victor Hugo's de-
scription, which, making allowance for certain in-
accuracies and overwrought notions, is sufficiently
just to convey some true idea of the octopus, the
knowledge of this animal among scientific men was
limited. It had been known in a vague way since the
time of Aristotle, but the remarkable stories which
have come down to us had been treated by modern
scientific men with contempt, as being mere legends,
•unworthy of credence or even of investigation. Pliny
relates that an enormous cuttle-fish was taken on the
coast of Spain which measured thirty feet long in its
arms, and the body of which weighed seven hundred

THE DEVIL-FISH. 127

pounds. Olaus Magnus and Denis de Montfort, nat-
uralists during the Middle Ages, described a gigantic
animal of the Northern Seas, under the name of the
kraaken, which often made ships founder by its attack.
Pontoppidan, Bishop of Bergen, in one of his books
assures us that a whole regiment of soldiers could
easily manoeuver on the back of the kraaken, which
he compares to a floating island.

4. The French steam corvette Alecton was once
between Teneriffe and Madeira when she fell in
with a gigantic calamar or squid, not less — according
to the account — than fifty feet long, without reckon-
ing its eight formidable arms, covered with suckers,
and about twenty feet in circumference at its largest
part, the head terminating in many arms of enormous
size, the other extremity in two fleshy lobes or fins
of great size, the weight of the whole being estimated
at four thousand pounds; the flesh was soft, gluti-
nous, and of reddish-brick color.

5. The commandant, wishing in the interests of
science to secure the monster, actually engaged it in
battle. Numerous shots were aimed at it, but the
balls traversed its flaccid and glutinous mass without
causing it any vital injury. But after one of these
attacks the waves were observed to be covered with
foam and blood, and, singular thing, a strong odor of
musk was inhaled by the spectators. This musk odor
is peculiar to many of the cephalopods.

6. The musket-shots not having produced the de-
sired results, harpoons were employed, but they took
no hold on the soft, impalpable flesh of the marine
monster. When it escaped from the harpoon, it dived

128 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

under the ship, and came up again at the other side.
They succeeded at last in getting the harpoon to hold,
and in passing a bowling hitch round the posterior
part of the animal. But when they attempted to
hoist it out of the water the rope penetrated deeply
into the flesh, and separated it into two parts, the head
with the arms and tentacles dropping into the sea and
making off, while the fins and posterior parts were
brought on board. -

7. Rev. Mr. Harvey,, of Newfoundland, pub-
lished an account a few years ago of the adventure of
two fishermen in Conception Bay. Their boat passed
near what appeared to be a floating bale of goods,
which was presumed to be flotsam from some wreck.
One of them struck the mass with the boathook, when
it instantly opened, like a gigantic umbrella without
a handle, and a huge head, with fiery, threatening
eyes that protruded ominously, and a long, curved
beak, raised itself from the surface. While they
stood paralyzed with fear, the monster flung at them
a tentacle of livid, corpse-like hue thirty feet long,
which went far beyond the boat, or they would have
been engulfed. One of the fishermen seized a sharp
hatchet, and by a well-directed blow severed this ter-
rible lasso before another one could be used, on which
the savage apparition of the sea swiftly darted back-
ward, and was lost to sight amid the ink-like discharge
with which it blackened the waters. The tentacle
was given to Mr. Harvey, and the fishermen avowed
there must have been at least ten feet more of it next
,the body of their assailant. In this case, as in all
the accounts of gigantic cephalopods, it is probable

THE DEVIL-PISH. 129

that the creature belonged rather to the squid spe-
cies, than what is properly known as the octopus.

8. The existence of these gigantic cephalopods
became a matter of interest to scientific men after the
publication of Victor Hugo's romance; and it has
now become definitely established that the great squid
is not only a verity, but one of the most formidable,
in its equipment of attack and defense, produced by
the immeasurable fecundity of the sea. If it existed
in the same numbers as the shark, that ferocious and
ravenous fish would be obliged to yield its prominence
as the most dreadful denizen of the ocean waters.
The octopus, and all its congeners, unlike other sea
creatures, kill not merely for food, but appear to de-
light in killing for its own sake. True aquatic brig-
ands, they are agressive and daring to an extreme de-
gree, though their favorite mode is to lie in wait for
their victims. Nature, however, applies to them the
law of retaliation. All the cuttle-fishes, from the
smallest to the largest, are favorite food of the
whale and dolphin, which attack them with impunity.
Michelet says: " These lords of the ocean are so deli-
cate in their taste that they eat only the heads and
arms, which are tender and easy of digestion. The
coast at Eoyan, for example, is covered with thou-
sands of these mutilated cuttle-fish. The porpoises
take most incredible bounds, at first to frighten them
and afterward to run them down; in short, after their
feast they give themselves up to gymnastics."

9. Some very large specimens of the octopus have
been captured. Professor Spencer Baird said that
the large specimen which some years ago was pre-

10

130 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

served in the New York Aquarium was only an in-
fant compared with the gigantic squid of the Pacific
Ocean, that on which the sperm-whale is known to
feed. One was cast ashore once at Newfoundland,
with arms fifty feet long. Another was observed in
Beaufort Harbor, in 1862, which measured thirty
feet. Any one who has seen such a monstrous crea-
ture can readily conceive how it seizes its prey. The
arms, eight, and in other cases ten, in number, form
powerful pincers at their extreme ends, and are fur-
nished the whole length with two rows of perfect
sucking disks, or some two thousand air-pumps. The
edges are also cut into sharp, saw-like teeth, hard as
steel, which bury themselves in the flesh of the vic-
tim. Such a sized octopus as those described above v
could throw these terrible lassos at least twenty-five
feet, and draw the body of a man to the mouth, when,
with its iron-like beak, it could crush the helpless
form and swallow, or drink it down, .to use Victor
Hugo's words.

10. The vulnerable portion of the octopus is the
neck, and fishermen and others, who know their habits
when attacked, always strive if possible to seize them
by the throttle-valve, when they are easily killed.
This is comparatively easy on land, but nearly im-
possible in the water. The locomotion of the devil-
fish is as easy on land as in the water. They have
been known frequently to run up perpendicular cliffs,
two hundred feet high, as easily as the fly runs up a
wall, the machinery of attachment being very similar.
They are said to move on land as fast as a man can
run, and frequently pursue their prey out of the sea,

THE DEVIL-FISH. 131

though on the land they are far more timid than in
their marine haunts.

11. The long appendages are used both as arms
and legs. All of the octopods swim freely at will, and
associate in numbers, but the larger ones, as they be-
come older, fly from community life and retire into
the clefts and hollows of the rocks which have been
worn by the waves, generally in places only a few
feet below the level of low water. There, with one
arm clasped close to the wall of its dwelling, the
watchful savage extends the others, alert, like the boa
constrictor, for the approach of prey, and no less dead-
ly in the crushing force of its folds. , Its movements
in seizing its victims are swift as an arrow. When
the animal is swimming, its long tentacles would be
in the way if extended or left pendant, so they are
drawn close alongside and allowed to float behind,
where they act as the tail to a kite. Motion in the
water is gained by drawing in and expelling water
from the locomotory tube. The octopus thus swims
backward instead of forward. Its food consists of
crustaceans, fishes, and other mollusks; every kind
of animal, in fact, which comes within its reach. But
it disdains carrion flesh, and feeds only on living vic-
tims. The general life of the octopus, as of the other
cuttle-fish, is about five or six years; and it lays eggs,
which are large and generally found in clusters.
Fishermen call them sea-grapes.

12. One singular peculiarity the cuttle-fish, in its
different varieties, shares with man. It changes color
with anger, passing through various tints, and only
resuming the usual hue when the emotion has ceased.

132 THE ANIMAL WOKLD.

Not only does the octopus change color, but covers
itself with pustules and excrescences when in a rage,
increasing the repulsiveness of its appearance tenfold.
13. Mr. Beale, the naturalist, describes an ad-
venture with a small octopus. He had been searching
for shells among the rocks on Bonin Island, and was
much astonished to see at his feet a most extraor-
dinary-looking animal, crawling back toward the surf
which it had just left. It was creeping on its eight
legs, which, from their soft and flexible nature, bent
considerably under the weight of its body, so that it
was just lifted by an effort above the rocks. It ap-
peared much alarmed and made every attempt to
escape. Mr. Beale endeavored to stop it by putting
his foot on one of its tentacles, but it liberated itself
several times in spite of all his efforts. He then laid
hold of one of the tentacles with his hand, and held it
firmly, and the limb appeared as if it would be torn
asunder in the struggle. To terminate the contest,
he gave it a powerful jerk; it resisted the effort suc-
cessfully, but the moment after the enraged animal
lifted a head with large projecting eyes, and, loosing
its hold of the rocks, suddenly sprang upon Mr.
Beale's arm, which had been previously bared to the
shoulder, and clung to it with its suckers, while it
endeavored to get the beak, which he could now see
between the tentacles, in a position to bite him. Mr.
Beale describes its cold, slimy grasp as extremely
sickening, and he loudly called to his friends, who
were also searching for shells, to come to his assistance.
They hastened to the boat, and he was released by kill-
ing his tormentor with a boat-knife, when the arms

INTELLIGENCE OF THE ELEPHANT. 133

were disengaged bit by bit. Mr. Beale says that this
cephalopod must have measured across its expanded
arms about four feet, while its body was not bigger
than a large hand clinched. It was the species called
the rock-squid by whalers.

Anonymous, " A World of Wonders."

INTELLIGENCE OF THE ELEPHANT.

1. The stories told by ancient writers concerning
the sagacity of the elephant are, for the most part,
less satisfactorily supported by testimony than those
which are related by more modern authors. But they
seem to show that the intelligence of the animal was
almost as well known to the people of old times as
it is to ourselves.

2. Looking into Pliny, we find him saying of the
elephant that it is an animal distinguished for honesty,
discretion, and a sense of justice, such as are rare even
in mankind, — quce etiam in homine rara, probitas,
prudentia, cequitas; and that its understanding of
what is communicated to it, its obedience to command,
and retention of what it has learned, are marvelous.
Respecting the docility of the elephants at Rome in
his time, he relates that they would perform dances
in concert, wield arms, and engage in gladiatorial com-
bats; that they would walk on ropes, not only level,
but sloping, and not only forward, but, what was
more wonderful, backward; that four of them would

134 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

carry a fifth on a litter, like a sick lady; and that if
one of them was invited into a dining-room full of
guests, he would make his way to his couch with such
carefulness of step as not to incommode any one of the
company. As to their dancing, he tells the well-
known anecdote of one, somewhat of the duller or-
der, which, having been punished with stripes for not
doing his lesson well in the day, was found practising
it by himself at night; a story of which the truth has
been much doubted, but Pliny says certum est, — there
ought to be no doubt about it.

3. The anecdote is repeated by Plutarch, who
adds that the animal was seen practising by the light
of the moon. It may perhaps receive some support
to its credibility from an account given of a jay by
Mr. Jesse. A bird of that species belonging to a
Somersetshire attorney, was an admirable mimic of
sounds, but if it heard any new sound, as a strange
kind of whistle or the like, would not attempt to. imi-
tate it while any one was within sight, but, having
listened to it attentively, would try an imitation if he
thought that he was not observed, and, if he succeed-
ed, would display his new acquirement to the first
person that passed him.

4. Pliny relates also that Mutianus, a man of emi-
nence, who had been three times consul, used to say
that he had seen an elephant that had learned to form
Greek letters, in which he would write, Ipse ego hmc
scripsi, et spolia Celtica dicavi. Mutianus was ac-
customed to relate also that he had seen some ele-
phants landed at Puteoli, which, being frightened at
the length of the temporary bridge between the ves-

INTELLIGENCE OE THE ELEPHANT. 135

sel and the shore, had sense enough to turn their tails
toward it, and walk along it backward, so that they
might not see the danger which they had to encounter.

5. Both iElian and Plutarch relate the story of an
elephant, which was defrauded of its food' by its keeper,
revenging itself on him. The man, in measuring out
the animal's barley, purloined a portion of it, and
then put stones at the bottom of the measure, so as to
raise the corn to the brim. He thus deceived the
owner of the elephant, but not the elephant itself,
who, one day, as the man was boihng his meat, took
up a quantity of sand in his trunk, and spirted it into
the pot, inflicting on the rogue a very appropriate
kind of punishment.

6. iElian adds, from a writer named Agnon, an-
other story of an elephant that was cheated of its food.
It was kept at a house in" Syria, and was daily de-
frauded by its keeper of the half of a measure of bar-
ley allotted for it by its owner. It submitted to the
deprivation for some time, but one day, when the
owner was present, and waiting for the animal to be
fed, the keeper poured out the whole measure, when
the elephant carefully separated the barley into two
portions with its trunk, taking the one and leaving
the other, thus making known, as clearly as was pos-
sible for a dumb animal, the keeper's dishonesty.

7. A similar anecdote of the elephant appeared
some short time since in the public papers, but I have
had it repeated to me also by a gentleman who had
received it direct from persons in India well aware of
its truth. The occurrence took place in the early part
of the year 1863. A large and strong elephant was

136 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

sent to Nagercoil to assist in piling up timber, and
the Dewan, the officer who despatched it, requested
the wife of a missionary residing there to be good
enough to see the animal fed with its allowance of
rice, lest the keeper, who was suspected of not being
over-honest, should abstract any portion of it. The
animal was accordingly brought to the missionary's
house for that purpose, and, for a time, all appeared to
go on correctly; but at length the missionary's wife
began to suspect that the quantity of rice was growing
daily smaller and smaller. One day, in consequence,
she intimated her mistrust to the keeper, who, with
an air of the utmost sincerity, expressed his wond«r
that she should think there could be any ground for
such an imputation against him, concluding by say-
ing in his own native phraseology, " Madam, do you
think I could rob my child? " During the conversa-
tion the elephant was standing by, and seemed by
degrees to become perfectly aware that what was be 1
ing said related to himself and his food. The keeper
had on a very bulky waistcloth, which the elephant
eyed from time to time, and just as the man concluded
his protestations, and the missionary's wife was hesi-
tating whether she should say anything more, the
animal quietly threw his trunk round the keeper, and
suddenly untied the waistcloth, when a large quan-
tity of rice, which the man had secreted in it, fell to
the ground. Here again we see sagacity and intelli-
gence almost equal to that of a human being.

8. Let us throw together here a few other old
stories concerning the perspicacity of elephants: An
elephant at Eome that was ill-treated by a number of

INTELLIGENCE OP THE ELEPHANT. 137

boys, who pricked his trunk with, their writing-styles,
seized one of them, and raised him up over his head,
intending, as the others expected, to dash him on the
ground, but, while they were crying out in terror, he
set him quietly down again, as if he thought he had
sufficiently punished a child by giving him a severe
fright.

9. A man who had a wife older than himself
strangled her, in order to marry a younger woman,
with whom he had fallen in love. But a tame ele-
phant which he kept, and which saw the man commit
the murder, took the new wife to the place where the
other was buried, and turned up the earth with his
tusks and trunk, till the body was completely ex-
posed.

10. When a number of elephants, says Plutarch,
are going to cross a river, they send in the youngest
and smallest one first, while the others stand on the
bank and watch whether the water is too deep for him,
for, if it is not, they know that they can all cross with
perfect safety. The same author relates that those
who catch elephants in India sometimes dig pits to
entrap them, covering them over with earth and
brushwood, and that, if one of a herd happens to fall
into such a snare, the rest will bring wood and stones
and throw them in to fill up the bottom, till the cap-
tive is raised high enough to step out.

John Sei,by Watson, " The Reasoning Power of Animals."

138 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

PHILOMELA.

1. Haek! ah, the nightingale!
The tawny-throated!

Hark! from that moonlit cedar what a burst!
"What triumph! hark, — what pain!
O wanderer from a Grecian shore,
Still, — after many years, in distant lands, —
Still nourishing in thy bewildered brain
That wild, unquenched, deep-sunken, Old- World
pain, —

Say, will it never heal?
And can this fragrant lawn,
With its cool trees, and night,
And the sweet, tranquil Thames,
And moonshine, and the dew,
To thy racked heart and brain

Afford no balm?

2. Dost thou to-night behold,
Here, through the moonlight on this English

The unfriendly palace in the Thracian wild?

Dost thou again peruse,
With hot cheeks and seared eyes,
The too clear web, and thy dumb sister's shame?

Dost thou once more essay
Thy flight; and feel come over thee,
Poor fugitive ! the feathery change
Once more; and once more make resound,

BARON CUVIER. 139

With love and hate, triumph and agony,

Lone Daulis, and the high Cephisian vale?

Listen, Eugenia, —

How thick the bursts come crowding through the

leaves !
Again — thou hearest!
Eternal passion!
Eternal pain!

Matthew Arnold.

bako:n" CUVIER.

1. Georges Chretien Leopold Frederic Dago-
bert Cuvier, the great French naturalist, was born
af-. Montbeliard, August 23, 1769, and died in Paris,
May 13, 1832. The family came originally from a
village in the Jura which still bears the name of
Cuvier; at the time of the Reformation it settled at
Montbeliard, where some of its members held offices of
distinction. The grandfather of Cuvier had two sons,
the younger of whom entered a Swiss regiment in the
service of France; a brave man and excellent officer,,
he rose to high honors, and at the age' of fifty married
a lady considerably younger than himself, and had
three sons; the first died in infancy, the second was
the subject of the present sketch, and the third was
Frederic Cuvier, also distinguished as a naturalist.
As Georges had a delicate constitution, his mother
watched over him with the tenderest care; she taught

140 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

him to read, made him repeat to her his Latin lessons,
instructed him in drawing, and developed that ardent
desire for knowledge which was so remarkable in him.
At the age of ten he entered the gymnasium, where he
remained four years, distinguishing himself in every
branch there taught. At this early period his taste
for natural history was stimulated by reading a copy
of Buff on which he found at the house of a relative;
and his memory was so retentive that at the age of
twelve he was perfectly familiar with the descriptions
of birds and quadrupeds. At fourteen he formed a
kind of academy from among his schoolmates, of
which he was president, at whose weekly meetings the
merits of some book were discussed; here his oratorical
and administrative powers began to manifest them-
selves. A petty trick of a malicious teacher prevented
his being sent to the free school of Tubingen, where he
would have prepared himself for the church; and this
change in his studies he always regarded as most for-
tunate.

2. Charles, Duke of Wurtemberg, took him under
his special favor, and sent him to the academy of
Stuttgart in March, 1784. After studying philosophy
one year, he applied himself to the science of fiscal
administration, because it gave him an opportunity
to pursue his favorite natural history in books, in the
fields, and in cabinets. One of the professors gave
him a copy of the " System of Nature " by Linnaeus,
which was his library on natural history for several
years. "While occupied by such reading and the col-
lection of specimens, he also obtained several prizes in
his class studies. On leaving Stuttgart he became

BARON CUVIER. 14-1

private tutor in the family of Count d'Hericy in
Normandy (July, 1788), where he remained till 1794.
Here he pursued natural history with great zeal, being
very favorably situated for the study of both terres-
trial and marine animals. Some terebratulce having
been dug up in his vicinity, he conceived the idea of
comparing fossils with living species. The dissection
of some mollusks suggested to him the necessity of a
reform in the classifications of animals; and here
originated the germs of his two great works, the
" Ossemens fossiles," and the " Regne animal."
Through his acquaintance with M. Tessier he began
a correspondence with Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Lacepede,
and other Parisian savants on subjects of natural his-
tory; and in the spring of 1795 he accepted their
invitation to go to Paris, and was appointed professor
in the central school of the Pantheon, for which he
is said to have composed his "Tableau elementaire de
Vhistoire naturelle des animaux," in which he first
published his ideas on zoological arrangement. M.
Mertrud had been appointed professor of comparative
anatomy at the Jardin des Plantesj feeling himself
unable from age to discharge all its duties, he called
upon Cuvier to assist him, who at this time invited
his brother Frederic to join him, and commenced the
collection of comparative anatomy which has since be-
come so famous and extensive.

3. In 1796 the National Institute was formed, and
Cuvier was associated with Lacepede and Daubenton
in the section of zoology, and was its third secretary.
The death of Daubenton at the close of 1799 made
vacant for Cuvier the chair of natural history at the

142 THE ANIMAL WOULD.

College de France; and in 1802 he succeeded Mertrud
as professor of comparative anatomy at the Jardin des
Plantes. In 1802, appointed by Bonaparte one of the
inspectors general to establish lycees or public schools,
he founded those of Marseilles, Nice, and Bordeaux.
He quitted this office in 1803 on being elected per-
petual secretary to the class of natural sciences in the
institute, a position which he held until his death; in
this capacity he made in 1808 his celebrated report on
the progress of the natural sciences since 1789, which
appeared in 1800. In 1808 he was also made one of
the councillors for life to the Imperial University, by
which he was frequently brought into close communi-
cation with Napoleon. In 1809-'10 he was charged
with the organization of the new academies in the
Italian states annexed to the empire. In 1811 he was
sent on a similar mission to Holland and the Hanseatic
towns, and was made chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
In 1813, though a Protestant, he was sent to Borne
to organize a university there, and was also appointed
master of requests in the council of state.

4. In 1814 he was named councillor of state by
Napoleon, which honor was continued to him by
Louis XVIIL, as also that of royal commissary, which
enabled him to introduce many improvements in crim-
inal and civic law; and he was made chancellor to the
university, which office he retained during life. In

1818 he visited England with his family, to observe
its political and scientific institutions; while there he
was elected a member of the French Academy. In

1819 he was made grand master of the university, and
president of the comite de I'interieur, and Louis

BARON CUVIER. 143

XVIII. created him baron. In 1822 he was appointed
grand master of the faculties of Protestant theology,
which gave him the superintendence of the religious,
civil, and political rights of his creed; and in 1827
was added to this the management of the religious
affairs of all the creeds in France except the Roman
Catholic. In 1824 he acted as one of the presidents
of the council of state at the coronation of Charles X.,
who in 1826 made him grand officer of the Legion of
Honor. In 1830 he recommenced his lectures at the
College de France on the " History and Progress of
Science in all Ages," which were continued until his
death; in this year he made a second visit to England,
where he happened to be when the revolution occurred
which placed Louis Philippe on the throne of France.
He continued to enjoy all his honors and important
offices under the citizen king; and in 1832 he was
created peer of France, and the appointment of presi-
dent to the entire council of state only wanted the
king's signature when Cuvier expired.

5. On May 8, 1832, he opened his course of lec-
tures at the College de France. After the first lecture
he felt slight pain and numbness in the right arm, and
his throat became affected; on the third day both
arms were seized, and the power of swallowing was
lost, all his mental faculties and the power of speech
remaining unaffected; he was perfectly calm and re-
signed. Four hours before he died he was carried at
his own request into the cabinet where the happiest
and proudest hours of his life had been spent, and
where he wished to draw his last breath. Feeble in
his youth, by the time he arrived in Paris his health

144 THE ANIMAL WOBLD.

was seriously deranged; but the excitement of new
studies, the change in his habits, and the exertion of
lecturing, worked such an alteration that he enjoyed
good health until his final illness. He was below the
middle stature, with very fair skin and reddish hair
up to the age of thirty; as his health improved, his
hair became darker; at forty-five he grew stout, but
was always well; at sixty he scarcely seemed more
than fifty; according to Duverhoy, he never used
spectacles when reading or writing. Cuvier's brain
was remarkably large, weighing between fifty-nine
and sixty ounces, nearly a pound more than the aver-
age; the excess was caused almost entirely by the great
development of the cerebral hemispheres, the seat of
the intellectual faculties.

6. Besides the " Report on the Progress of the
Physical Sciences," undertaken at the request of Na-
poleon, Cuvier displayed the extent of his acquire-
ments by his reports before the Institute on meteor-
ology and natural philosophy in general, chemistry
and physics, mineralogy and geology, botany, anato-
my and physiology, zoology, travels connected with
natural science, medicine and surgery, the veterinary
art, and agriculture. He contributed many articles
on natural history to the " Dictionnaire des sciences
naturelles " ; prominent among these is the one on
" Nature," in which he combats the metaphysical sys-
tems of pantheism and the physio-philosophers, and
refers everything to the wisdom and goodness of an
almighty Creator. He wrote many articles for a
kindred work, the "Dictionnaire des sciences medi-
cates," the most important of which is that on "Anir

BARON CUVIEE. 145

mal." As secretary of the Academy of Sciences it was
his duty to read historical notices of deceased members
at its public meetings; three volumes of these sketches
have been published, containing thirty-nine articles.
Besides these he delivered several discourses at fune-
rals of academicians.

7. He was quite as eminent a legislator as natural-
ist, though less known as such; and, as royal commis-
sary, councillor of the university, member of the state
council, and president of the committee of the interior,
he introduced beneficial changes in the municipal and
provincial laws, and in public instruction. His lan-
guage, both written and spoken, was clear, forcible,
precise, and animated, frequently rising to the highest
eloquence. The benignity and noble expression of
his countenance was remarkable. In private, he was
kind, affable, and ready to communicate information.
He had the greatest love for order and regularity; he
rarely allowed himself to be disturbed during the
hours set aside for study, but during his hours of
audience he was accessible to everybody. With his
other accomplishments, he was an expert draughts-
man; many of his plates were drawn by himself, and
he left a large collection of designs intended to illus-
trate his unfinished work on comparative anatomy.
The disinterestedness of Cuvier's character is shown
not only by the acts of his life, but by the small for-
tune he left at his death; having filled offices of the
highest trust, which he might have turned to his
pecuniary advantage, he left only about $20,000 and
a library which cost him a similar sum; this was pur-
chased by government, and given to various institu-
11

146 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

tions, principally to the Jardin des Plantes. When
we consider the number of offices he held, and whose
duties he conscientiously performed, any one of which
after his death was sufficient for a man of great talent,
and some of which could not be as competently filled,
we are able to form some idea of the varied acquire-
ments, the unceasing industry, the wonderful memory,
and the transcendent ability of Cuvier. By uni-
versal consent he is regarded as one of the best of men,
most brilliant of writers, soundest of thinkers, most
far-sighted of philosophers, purest of statesmen, and
the greatest naturalist of modern times.

Anonymous, "The American Cyclopaedia."

WHITE ELEPHANTS.

1. The first introduction I ever had to a white
elephant was apropos of my audience with the King
of Burmah, at Mandalay, his capital, during my
travels through Farther India. King Mounglon, the
father of the notorious Theebau, was then upon the
Burmese throne. The audience chamber was arranged
somewhat theatrically. A green baize curtain de-
scended from ceiling to floor. A few feet above the
floor this curtain presented a proscenium-like opening,
*ten feet square, which brought into view a luxurious
alcove. Within this alcove His Majesty was seated
upon the floor, resting against a velvet cushion, with a

&

^

WHITE ELEPHANTS. lit

cup, a betel-box, a carafe, a golden cuspidor, and a
pair of silver-mounted binoculars within reach. He
was short, stout, fifty-five, and pleasant, though crafty-
looking. He was dressed in a white linen jacket and
a silk cloth around the hips and legs. After staring
at me a shocking long while through his binoculars,
he became interested to an unseemly extent in my age,
my father's business, my design in traveling, and other
personal matters.

2. First, he made up his mind that I was a down-
right spy; then he concluded that I was a political
adventurer; finally, it slowly dawned upon him that I
was traveling simply for pleasure, and perhaps it was
with the benevolent desire of enhancing that pleasure
to the utmost that he offered me an unlimited number
of wives (I did not inquire whose) on condition that I
would permanently settle there. Happily the puri-
tanical principles in which I had been educated en-
abled me to withstand the shock. St. Anthony could
not have behaved better in the circumstances than I
did; and, besides, St. Anthony's temptations merely
existed in the abstract, while mine were almost within
grasp. Perhaps I ought to add that I did not feel like
entering the King's service just at that time. While
refusing all his kind offers, through an interpreter —
and His Majesty offered me a palace and a title, as well
as a fortune, in addition to a harem practically infinite
— I succeeded in mollifying him with the present of
a handsome magnif ying-glass, which I had taken with
me from Calcutta for the express purpose. This glass
had a bright gilt rim and an ivory handle. Though
it passed into the King's hands then and there, I have

148 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

ever since seen through it everything that is good in
Burmah.

3. It was while the glow of this visit was fresh
upon me that I descended to the royal court-yard and
there found, in a sort of palace by itself, a specimen
of the sacred white elephant of which the world has
heard so much and seen so little. The creature was of
medium size, with whitish eyes. Its forehead, trunk,
and ears were spotted with white, and looked as though
their natural color had been removed by a vigorous
application of pumice-stone or sand-paper. The re-
mainder of the body was of the ordinary dark hue, so
that it was impossible for me to say that I was contem-
plating a white elephant par excellence. The animal
stood, I wish I could say, in milk-white majesty; but
to tell the truth, its majesty was somewhat mouse-
colored. It received me beneath a great embroidered
canopy, a fetter on one of its forelegs being the only
obvious symbol of captivity. This holy elephant had
an intensely vicious look, so that I was fain to hope
that behind a frowning providence it hid a smiling
face. Umbrellas in gold and red occupied adjacent
nooks in company with Roman-like fasces and silver-
tipped spears and axes. The floor was networked with
silver. Water jars and eating troughs, also of silver,
were at hand to relieve its thirst and hunger.

4. Fresh-cut grass and bananas are its staple diet,
though it also delights in rice, sugar-cane, cocoanuts,
cakes, and candies. The water it drinks is perfumed
with flowers or tinctured with palm wine. The aver-
age daily food it consumes reaches the modest weight
of two hundred pounds. Instead of its name, as we

WHITE ELEPHANTS. 149

would place that of a valuable and favorite horse,
a description of the animal, painted on a red tablet, was
hung over one of the pillars of its. stall. It ran as
follows: "An elephant of beautiful color; hair, nails,
and eyes are white. Perfection in form, with all
signs of regularity of the high family. The color of
the skin is that of the lotus. A descendant of the
angels of the Brahmans. Acquired as property by
the power and glory of the King for his service. Is
equal to the crystal of the highest value. Is of the
highest family of all in existence. A source of power
of attraction of rain. It is as pure as the purest
crystal of the highest value in the world."

5. The constant companions of the pale probos-
cidian whose acquaintance I made, and, indeed, of
all that variety, are white monkeys. Both the Bur-
mese and the Siamese believe that evil spirits may be
thus propitiated. As it is necessary to guard the white
elephant from superhuman assault and influence, sev-
eral white monkeys are generally kept in its stables.
These monkeys are not reverenced for themselves, but
for the protection — especially protection from sick-
ness — which they are supposed to give to their gigantic
comrade. They are generally large, ugly, long-tailed
baboons, thickly covered with fur as white as that of
the whitest rabbit. As a rule, they are in perfect
health and veritable demons of mischief. Captured
more frequently than the white elephant, they enjoy
about the same privileges as it, having households and
officers of their own, but they are always obliged to
yield it the precedence. There is encouragement to
Darwinians in the Siamese saying that the white mon-

150 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

key is a man and a brother — I might almost say a man
and a Buddha. Upon that principle, civilized man,
instead of being a little lower than the angels, is a little
higher than the apes.

6. Is the white elephant white, or only so by a
figure of speech? To this question it is impossible
to answer yes or no. The Siamese never speak of a
white elephant, but of a chang pouk or strange-colored
elephant. The hue varies from a pale yellowish or
reddish brown to a rose. Buffon gives it as ash-
gray. Judging from the specimens which I have seen,
both at Mandalay and Bangkok, I should say it was
generally a light gray, with spots or splashes of pink.
The color of the true white elephant has that delicate
shade which distinguishes the nose of a white horse.
It has always a tinge of pink in it — that is to say, it
is flesh-colored. The face, ears, front of trunk, breast
and feet, have a sort of pinkish mottled appearance,
while the remainder of the body is of an ashen color.
It should always be remembered that the term
" white," as applied to elephants, must be received
with qualification. In fact, the grains of salt must be
numerous, for the white elephant is white only by
contrast with those that are decidedly dark. A mulat-
to, for instance, is not absolutely white, but he is white
compared with a full-blooded negro. The so-called
white elephant is an occasional departure from the
ordinary beast. As there are human albinos, so there
are elephantine albinos. And there is a general resem-
blance of characteristics among all quadrupedal al-
binos.

7. It is not alone the amount of pink or flesh color

WHITE ELEPHANTS. 151

that constitutes a white elephant. This animal must
possess certain other peculiarities. Prominent among
these are the color of the eyes, the redness of the
mouth, and the white or light-colored nails. In this
species also the hair, which is for the most part yellow-
ish, is apt to be scanter and shorter than in other ele-
phants; hence the skin, with its peculiar neutrality of
tint, shows more plainly. When pink patches appear,
they are due to the absence of dark pigment in the
epidermis — at least this is the explanation of Prof.
Flower, President of the Zoological Society of Lon-
don. The same theory accounts for the light-colored
hair. The iris is often red, sometimes pale yellow,
sometimes pure white. When the latter is the case,
the eyes are white-rimmed. Sometimes, too, a pink
iris is visible in an eye that is rimmed with scarlet. I
have heard it said, also, that the pupil is occasionally
a bright red, though I have never seen this phenome-
non. By the dissection of white dogs, white owls,
and white rabbits, it has been discovered that the red
color of their eyes is caused by the absence of dark
pigment. To put the case in technical terms, the
pigmentum nigrum of the choroid coat, and also that
portion of it which lies behind the iris, and is called
uvea by anatomists, is wanting.

8. The peculiar fairness of the skin and hair is
said by those who differ from Prof. Plower to be
brought about by the absence of a membrane called
rete mucosum. An albino elephant sees with diffi-
culty in a strong light, but, on the other hand, sees
better in the dark than black elephants do. I do not
know that a scientific attempt has ever been made to

152 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

formulate the freaks of Nature, so as to produce white
elephants ad libitum. I am inclined to think, how-
ever, that even the most intelligent Burmese or Siam-
ese are not sufficiently conversant with Darwin's
" Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestica-
tion " to attempt much in this line. This variety of
sthpiculture will probably be left to the future.

9. It is the general impression that white elephants
are specifically different from others, but this is not the
case. That they are distinguished from those species
that have the ordinary color, by weakness of body,
deficiency of instinct, or atrophy of mind, is abun-
dantly refuted by facts. They are of ordinary size
and shape, and specimens of both sexes are captured.
When you possess an elephant whose color is that of a
negro's palm, you possess a white elephant, the color
not being necessarily hereditary, but caused by condi-
tions so elusive that we are obliged, as a matter of con-
venience, to name the result a freak of Nature. The
hue is never a consequence of disease. Under identical
conditions white elephants and black elephants are
equally long-lived. Whatever in each species be the
difference in shade, or whether the animal be found
roaming in the forests of Laos or residing in royal state
in the cities of Mandalay or Bangkok, I must not for-
get to say that the absolutely white elephant — white as
pure snow is white — is never seen. As an ideal it may
be imagined as enjoying a lonely paradise in some
yet undiscovered jungle.

10. In Farther India there are occasionally to be
found ordinary black or dark-gray elephants which are
afflicted with a skin disease termed by dermatologists

MARVELS OF INSECT ORGANIZATION. 153

and zoologists leucoderma. These elephants, at a dis-
tance, somewhat resemble the albinos, but a nearer
inspection always shows that their eyes have neither
a red, yellow, nor white iris; nor have their pinkish
spots a sharp outline, but fade gradually into the sur-
rounding hide. In these respects they strikingly
differ from the albino variety. The greatest varia-
tion, however, is noticeable in their respective valua-
tions, the genuine sacred white elephant in Burmah
and Siam not being purchasable from anybody, by
anybody, upon any terms; whereas the skin-diseased
animal may be found without very arduous search,
and may be readily purchased for five hundred rupees
(two hundred and fifty dollars) or less. Notwithstand-
ing this superlative distinction, ingenuous showmen
have been known to so confuse these two varieties of
elephants as even to exhibit the latter for the former.
Feank Vincent, " In and Out of Central America."

MAEVELS OF INSECT OKGANIZATION.

1. The torch of anatomy has shed a flood of light
upon the organization of the inferior animals, and the
microscope, by allowing us to pry into the most inac-
cessible nooks of it, has unfolded before our eyes a
horizon as vast as it was unexpected. But it must
be admitted, that if the investigation of infinitely
small beings has acquired such an advanced degree

154 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

of certainty, it owes it to men who have often devoted
all their lives to the object.

2. An advocate of Maastricht, Lyonet, passed
nearly all his life in studying a caterpillar which
gnaws the wood of the willow, and produced on this
insect only one of the most splendid monuments of
human patience. Goedart, a Dutch painter, spent
twenty of his best years in watching the metamor-
phoses of insects — a most interesting spectacle for him
who looks at it with the eye of religion. Hence, in
the midst of our most brilliant parties (into which
affliction will yet make its way despite both pomp
and gold), he felt tempted to exclaim, "Ah! let me
rather see a butterfly born. In his puniest creatures
God reveals his power and majesty; you, in your
splendid fetes, often display only your weakness and
misery! "

3. Anatomically and physiologically speaking, the
human mechanism is very rude and coarse, compared
to the exquisite delicacy revealed in the organism of
certain animals. But in us the intellect, the real
scepter of the universe, predominates over the apparent
imperfection of matter. Through it man alone
approaches those chosen creatures who shine near the
throne of the Eternal, and form a bond of union be-
tween heaven and earth; if in his structure he belong
to our sphere, he seems already to elevate himself
toward the supreme Essence by the splendor of his
genius. This is a grand and philosophic truth, which
a glance at the organization of insects will instantly
demonstrate.

4. In her slightest sketches Nature knows how to

MARVELS OF INSECT ORGANIZATION. 155

unite power to an exquisite fineness of mechanism;
the first glance at insects proves this, and thus so soon
as their interesting history is displayed before us, we
feel no longer tempted to treat them with the disdain
that poets have shown. A simple butterfly, a single
fly, humbles the pride of man, and despite of him
levels his forests, devours his wops, and reduces him
to despair. An insect of this kind, unknown to him
who apostrophizes it with contempt, petrifies the coun-
tryman with terror, while its sting is death to him!

5. Simple little, two-winged flies, gnats, and mos-
quitoes, the puny look of which would never lead
one to dread aggression from such a quarter, are never-
theless enemies of the most inconvenient kind to our
species. In some countries, where they swarm by
myriads on all sides, man is subjected to their empire,
and only avoids their attacks by adapting his abode
and manner of living to the emergency. At the same
time when the mosquitoes are most prevalent in Sene-
gal, the negroes, notwithstanding the constraint of
such a kind of life, remain constantly enveloped in
the midst of thick smoke. For this purpose they set
up regular roosts formed of branches, and suspended
above masses of wood which burn perpetually beneath
them. Squatted on these they receive their friends
during the day, and at night, heated from below and
smoked on all sides, they stretch themselves on them
in order to sleep.

6. Some savage races only free themselves from
the onslaughts of this accursed brood by smearing their
bodies with a filthy covering of grease; and it is to
protect himself against them that the miserable Lap-

156 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

lander condemns himself to be smoked all day long
in his dark hut. The companions of the astronomer
Maupertuis were so tormented by the stings of the
mosquitoes during their travels in Lapland, that to
free themselves from them they had recourse to the
extreme measure of covering their faces with tar.
Does the reader believe that these people treated in-
sects with the same disdain as the poets, who did not in
any way understand them?

7. A simple fly in Africa does still more: it dis-
putes the land with us foot by foot; there is a struggle
between man and it as to which shall have possession.
Where it lives it prevents him from carrying on agri-
culture, and limits his explorations; he can only be-
come master of the soil when he has exterminated it.
This fly, generally called tsetse by the natives, is
shaped like our common species, and seems to all
appearance equally inoffensive, but its mouth secretes
a venom the activity of which by far surpasses that of
the most redoubtable serpents. It only requires a few
of its stings to overwhelm the strongest ox; and yet if
we attempted to ascertain the weight of its deadly
agent by means of the most delicate balance, it is so
small that we should perhaps find the calculation im-
possible.

8. It is an inexplicable anomaly that this fly,
which inevitably kills certain animals, does not injure
others. It selects all its victims from our cattle; the
goat and the ass alone defy its sting. Nor do its
attacks produce any effect upon man and wild animals.
But what is still more singular, this dipterous insect
kills the adult animal, but sucks the blood of its off-

MARVELS OP INSECT ORGANIZATION. 157

spring without doing any mischief. The tsetse
quickly poisons cattle, but produces no effect upon the
calf. Livingstone says that during his wanderings
his followers were frequently stung by it, without
ever suffering in the least degree; in fact they paid no
attention to it; while the deadly fly killed forty-three
oxen in spite of the- strictest watch.

9. In the domain of the infinitely little the physio-
logical phenomena astonish us no less than the extreme
slightness of the motive organs ! A single comparison
will demonstrate this. When we communicate an ele-
vating movement to our arms, and suddenly bring
them back to the body, a second of time will scarcely
suffice for the act; but, according to the experiments
of Herschel, some insects vibrate their wings several
hundred times in this short period! M. Cagniard-
Latour affirms that a gnat vibrates its wings five hun-
dred times in a second. Mr. Nicholson goes still
further; he asserts that the vibrations of the wing of
the common fly are as many as six hundred in a second,
since it passes through space at the rate of six feet in
this time. But this observer adds, that for rapid
flight we must multiply this number by six, which
means that in a second, or the time we require to exe-
cute a single movement of one of our members, the
fly with its wing can perform thirty-six hundred. The
mind is stupefied at such calculations, and yet they are
of unimpeachable accuracy ! This marvelous rapidity
of movement in the wings of insects explains the as-
tonishing ease with which they fly. As M. Blanchard
says, " In our days the railway traveler, carried at full
speed, often amuses himself by watching from the

158 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

window the movements of the gnats that flit about
with incomparable ease. These puny flies, notwith-
standing the agitation of the air, dart backward and
forward, wheel, rise, sink, and continue their gyra-
tions for hours at a time, as if they were there to show
us that the greatest speed we can attain is trifling
compared to the power of their delicate wings."

10. After this we are no longer astonished at the
activity shown by some butterflies, such as the sphinx,
when they rifle the flowers of our gardens. They flit
from one to the other with the speed of an arrow, and,
like the humming-birds, they hang motionless before
the corolla, plunging their long tongues to the bottom
in order to sip the nectar, while their wings are
agitated by movements which the eye cannot follow!
The delicacy of the aerial oars is not less remarkable
than their movements. However gently we take hold
of the wing of a butterfly, our fingers never leave it
without having some particles adhering, which seem
only a fine dust, the source of the magnificent coloring
of the insect. But when this dust is submitted to
microscopic examination, the observer is surprised to
see that each of these grains represents a little flat-
tened plate, lengthened out and of a fine complicated
structure, which reflects the most magical colors.
One of its extremities is generally toothed more or less
deeply, while the other displays only a little pedicle
by which each imperceptible scale is attached to the
transparent membrane of the wing. If a portion t>f
this be now examined by the aid of a low magnifying
power, it will be seen that all the scales are arranged
with admirable symmetry, one above the other like the

MARVELS OP INSECT ORGANIZATION. 159

tiles on a roof, and as they are of uniform shape and
often of very varied colors, the surface of the wing
closely resembles a mosaic of marvelous fineness, not
like that of our artists, but like the result of divine art.

11. Our varied movements are executed by the
aid of voluminous fleshy muscles attached to the skele-
ton. In respect to these the insect possesses both a
numerical and a dynamical superiority over the hu-
man race. Anatomists calculate that there are only
three hundred and seventy of these muscles in man,
while the patient Lyonet discovered more than four
thousand in a single caterpillar.

12. Insects equally surpass us in respect to
strength. A man of average physical powers cannot
move without difficulty a weight of forty-four pounds,
placed horizontally. As he himself weighs from one
hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds, he only
moves in so doing a mass the weight of which does not
equal a third of that of his body. If we subject a
mole-cricket to the same test, the results are quite ex-
traordinary. This creature, which only weighs sixty-
one grains and three-quarters, can with its two large
hands move a weight of about three pounds five
ounces, which means that it displays a strength three
hundred and seventy-five times exceeding its own
weight! The most superficial observation serves to
show the extraordinary strength possessed by insects.
Sir Walter Scott has related that a garden-snail placed
under a candlestick moved it from its place by the
efforts it made to regain its liberty; the same thing,
as Sir "Walter says, as if a prisoner in Newgate were to
shake the prison walls by his efforts to escape.

160 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

13. Notwithstanding their minuteness and the deli-
cacy of their anatomy,' some other insects also exhibit a
comparative strength which astonishes us. Although
it is almost puerile to speak of the flea, still we may
take it for an instance, as it is unfortunately known
everywhere. M. de Fonvielle, in his interesting work
on the " Invisible World," maintains that it can raise
itself from the ground to a height equal to two hun-
dred times its stature. At this rate, he says, a man
would only make a joke of jumping over the towers
of Notre-Dame and the heights of Montmartre; and
a prison would be an impossibility unless the walls
were built more than a quarter of a mile in height.

F. A. Pouchet, " The Universe."

THE CEICKET.

1. Little inmate, full of mirth,
Chirping on my kitchen hearth,
"Wheresoe'er be thine abode
Always harbinger of good,
Pay me for thy warm retreat
With a song more soft and sweet;
In return thou shalt receive
Such a strain as I can give.

2. Thus thy praise shall be expressed,
Inoffensive, welcome guest!
While the rat is on the scout,
And the mouse with curious snout,

CONCERNING SERPENTS. 161

With what vermin else infest
Every dish, and spoil "the best;
Frisking thus before the fire,
Thou hast all thy heart's desire.

3. Though in voice and shape they be
Formed as if akin to thee,

Thou surpassest, happier far,
Happiest grasshoppers that are;
Their's is but a summer's song, —
Thine endures the winter long,
Unimpaired and shrill and clear,
Melody throughout the year.

4. Neither nig"ht nor dawn of day
Puts a period to thy play:

Sing then — and extend thy span
Far beyond the date of man.
Wretched man, whose years are spent
In repining discontent,
Lives not, aged though he be,
Half a span, compared with thee.

Cowper.

CONCERNING SEKPENTS.

1. Few animals are more universally feared and
detested than serpents. Their presence startles us,
•however inoffensive they may be. Nor can the grace-
12

162 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

fulness of their motion, or beauty of color, conquer
the discontent we feel when we see them gliding in
our path, or coiled and glistening in the sunshine, in
which they delight. The enjoyment of many a sum-
mer's ramble has been impaired from this cause, and
we fear our article may be as distasteful to many per-
sons as are the objects of which it treats. But we may
remember that serpents, no less than more attractive
creatures, are important in Nature's economies.
Their structure is a marvel of mechanical adaptation,
less complicated, perhaps, but as perfect in every de-
tail as is that of mammals and birds, and the mechan-
ism which rolls the human eye is not more complete,
and scarcely more wonderful, than that which moves
the fangs of a viper. Perhaps,' in the study -of Na-
ture, we should estimate objects by their fitness, rather
than by their attractiveness or beauty.

2. " The serpent," observes Prof. Owen, " is too
commonly looked down upon as an animal degraded
from a higher type. . . . But it can outclimb the
monkey, outswim the fish, outleap the jerboa; it has
neither hand nor talons, yet it can outwrestle the
athlete, and crush the tiger in its embrace." Ser-
pents, in their mode of locomotion, are creeping ani-
mals, as their name implies, and constitute an order
of the great class Reptiles. This term also implies
creeping, but includes orders of animals which have
limbs for locomotion, and do not creep. Of these,
turtles, lizards, and crocodiles, are familiar instances;
so that animals of several species, which run, walk or
swim, are included in the same class with those which
creep. All of these, however, are cold-blooded, the

CONCERNING SERPENTS. 163

temperature of the body differing but few degrees
from that of the surrounding air or water. Their
coldness is always obvious to th* 'touch, and this is
true with those found in hot as well as in temperate
climates, and adds greatly to their repulsiveness.

3. Of serpents, their general form and structure
are the same. Their bodies are rounded and elon-
gated, and covered with a scaly skin. The vertebral
column is continuous with the length of the body, and
is divided into joints from two hundred to four hun-
dred in number, but in the large pythons, as stated by
Dr. Carpenter, four hundred and twenty-two joints
have been counted. To about three hundred and
sixty, or six-sevenths of these, were attached pairs of
movable ribs. A rattlesnake, with one hundred and
ninety-four vertebras, had one hundred and sixty-eight
pairs of ribs. The vertebra? of the serpent are united
by a most perfect ball-and-socket joint, and the ribs
are joined to the vertebras in a similar manner.
These, held and worked by complete muscular adjust-
ment, give to several their wonderful flexibility,
strength, and crushing power. The structure of the
backbone of a serpent has direct relation to its loco-
motion, for it is without limbs, and rudiments of
pelvic bones are found only in the boas, pythons, and
a few other species. But, where the type shades off
into allied reptilian forms, the rudimental limbs are
developed and prominent.

4. We read that the curse pronounced upon the
serpent was, " upon thy belly thou shalt go," and the
inference seems to be that, previous to that time, its
mode of progression was not upon its belly. This

164 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

would imply a great anatomical change in the struc-
ture of the creature at the time in question, a change
which, so far as we are aware, is not proved by pale-
ontological research, and the expression is probably a
figurative one, as observed by Dr. Buckland. Ser-
pents progress by the " foldings and windings they
make on the ground," and the stiff, movable scales
which cross the under portion of the body; but the
windings are sideways, not vertical.

5. The structure of the vertebrae is such, that up-
ward and downward undulations are greatly restricted,
and many illustrations, showing sharp vertical curves
of the body, are exaggerations. Most persons have
seen snakes glide slowly and silently, without any con*
tortion. They seem to progress by some invisible
power; but, if permitted to move over the bare hand,
an experiment easily tried, a motion of the scales will
be perceived. These are elevated and depressed, and
act as levers, by which the animal is carried forward.
Nor can a serpent progress with facility on the ground,
without the resistance afforded by the scales. It is
stated that it cannot pass over a plate of glass, or other
entirely smooth surface. We saw the experiment
tried, by placing a small pane of glass in a box, in
which was a common black snake. He was made
to pass over it repeatedly, but evidently found that he
had no foothold on it; and the third time, as he
approached it, elevated the fore-part of his body
slightly, and brought his head down beyond the glass,
and, on passing, his body seemed scarcely to touch
it. This gave an opportunity to witness the wave-
like movement of the scales, that is, of their elevation,

CONCERNING SERPENTS. 165

which runs from the head to the tail, enabling the ani-
mal to move continuously, instead of by a series of
minute pushes, as would occur if all the scales be lifted
and depressed at once.

6. In the moulting of the snake, which occurs
yearly, and sometimes oftener, the outer covering of
these creeping scales is shed; this is true also of the
covering of the eyes, so that the cast epidermis repre-
sents, with great distinctness, the external features of
the animal. In moulting, the outer skin is broken
along the back, near the head, and the animal emerges,
frequently drawing with him the skin, turning it in-
side out. Prof. Owen states, however, that in one
instance exuviation commenced by the snake rubbing
the skin loose around its jaws, working it back against
the sides of its cage, when, putting its head through
coils made by its own body, it pressed back the skin,
turning it outward. We have observed that the black
snake, on moulting, becomes more sensitive and irri-
table, but shy, and inclined, for a day or so, to keep
close in a corner of his cage. The scaly covering of
serpents must diminish their acuteness of touch; but
we have found them sensitive to exceedingly slight
irritation. They are without an external ear, and the
phrase " deaf as an adder " is a familiar one. Never-
theless, they have organs of audition beneath the skin
or protecting membrane, and we know by experiment
that snakes hear and distinguish sounds, and are said
in some instances to recognize the voice of their keeper.
Some species, it has been observed, are influenced by
music, and we quote the statement by Chateaubriand
of an incident witnessed by himself. He says: " The

166 THE ANIMAL "WORLD.

Canadian began to play upon his flute. The snake (a
rattlesnake) drew its head backward, its eyes lost their
sharpness, the vibrations of its tail relaxed, and, turn-
ing its head toward the musician, remained in an atti-
tude of pleased attention."

7. The snake-charmers familiar to travelers in
Eastern countries, handle cobras with apparent impu-
nity, cause them to advance or retreat, to coil and
uncoil, to bow their heads, or bring their deadly
mouths to their own by musical sounds, either vocal or
instrumental. A story is related of an English gen-
tleman, residing in a mountainous part of India, who
was compelled to desist playing upon a flute because
the music attracted serpents to his residence. The
sense of taste in serpents must be very feeble, as it is
quite unserviceable. They swallow their food whole,
nor have they any teeth by which mastication can be
accomplished. Their sense of smell is also obtuse.
The organs by which this is effected are near the muz-
zle, but, according to Cuvier, they are without the
sinuses which exist in the heads of mammals. We
have tested this sense in several species of snakes, but
only pungent odors seem to specially annoy them.
The tongue of the serpent is a harmless appendage,
tough, horny, and double-pointed; and, like the same
member in man, has a wonderful propensity to be in
motion. That snakes sting with their tongues is an
old but erroneous opinion. Perhaps our own species
is not equally innocent in that respect. All serpents
are carnivorous, and nearly all seize and swallow living
food. Their teeth are bony, hard, conical in shape,
and exceedingly sharp-pointed. None of the class

CONCERNINa SBRPBKTS. 167

have grinding or cutting teeth. They are formed for
holding their food, not to grind, crush, or cut it.
Moreover, all their teeth are recurved in form and
position; that is, they point in or backward, so that
an object once seized can scarcely escape, and, if the
jaws be fully distended, could only with great diffi-
culty be ejected. Instances are given where serpents
have died from their inability to swallow what they
could not eject from their throats, and it is obvious
that life could not continue a very long time under
such circumstances, for, as Prof. Owen observes,
" while swallowing, the tracheae may be so compressed
that no air can pass, and their only resource is what is
contained in the lungs."

8. We have observed that serpents swallow their
food whole. They make a meal from a mouthful,
but the mouthful is sometimes a very large one, for
they will swallow animals twice or thrice their own
diameter. This is permitted by the extraordinary
expansibility of their body; but the enlargement of
their jaws is a complicated phenomenon. In the act
of swallowing, they yield at every point, sideways as
well as vertically. The elastic integuments which
hold the parts of their jaws in place give way, and the
apparently small mouth becomes an enormous one.
Digestion proceeds slowly, and, if the meal be exces-
sive, as it often is, the serpent remains sluggish and
comparatively helpless a long time. " They have
been kept four, six, and eight months, without being
fed, and with very little apparent waste of substance."
Bruce reports that he kept specimens of the cerastes,
or horned-snake, two years in a glass vessel without

168 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

food, during which time they cast their skins as
usual.

9. Hibernation is with them a period of profound
torpor. In our temperate climates they gather in
large numbers, in some hole, or burrow in the ground,
or in clefts of rocks, for their winter sleep. We once
saw twenty-six black snakes taken from one burrow
beneath the roots of a partially-fallen tree, in Febru-
ary. Other observers have found a much larger num-
ber. We are informed that more than three hundred
have been found in a single burrowing-place, and that
many species, venomous and non-venomous, sometimes
resort to the same rendezvous and hibernate together.
In the tropics the anaconda, and perhaps other species
of serpents, sometimes hibernate during the dry season
of summer in the hardened mud of dried-up pools. It
is by the power to hibernate that serpents survive
during the winters of temperate climates, but they
seem unable to withstand the extreme and long-con-
tinued cold of the Arctic zone. There, serpents, and
indeed reptiles of all kinds, are rare, and frequently
are entirely wanting. In the Falkland Islands, Terra
del Fuego, and the mountains of Southern Patagonia,
no serpents have been found. The persistence of
vitality in serpents is extraordinary, and continues
after great mutilations. They are said to have lived
several days after the removal of the head and viscera.
One placed in a vacuum twenty-four hours still showed
signs of sensibility; and, many hours after decapita-
tion, a rattlesnake would plunge its headless trunk as
in the usual act of striking.

Blias Lewis, " The Popular Science Monthly."

THE KING OP BIRDS. 169

THE KING OF BIEDS.

1. In the African plains and wildernesses, where
the lion seeks his prey, where the pachyderms make
the earth tremble under their weighty strides, where
the giraffe plucks the high branches of the acacia,
and the herds of the antelope bound along: there also
dwells the Ostrich, the king of birds, if size alone gives
right to so proud a title; for neither the condor nor
the albatross can be compared in this respect to the
ostrich, who raises his head seven or eight feet above
the ground, and attains a weight of from two to three
hundred pounds. His small and weak wings are in-
capable of carrying him through the air, but their
flapping materially assists the action of his legs, and
serves to increase his swiftness when, flying over the
plain, he " scorns the horse and its rider." His feet
appear hardly to touch the ground, and the length
between each stride is not infrequently from twelve
to fourteen feet, so that for a time he might even out-
strip a locomotive rushing along at full speed.

2. In Senegal, Adanson saw a couple of ostriches
so tame that two negro boys could sit upon the largest
of them. (i Scarce had he felt the weight," says the
naturalist, " when he began to run with all his might,
and thus they rode upon him several times around
the village. I was so much amused with the sight,
that I wished to see it repeated; arid in order to ascer-
tain how far the strength of the birds would reach,
I ordered two full-grown negroes to mount upon the

170 THE ANIMAL WOELD.

smallest of them and two others upon the strongest.
At first they ran in a short gallop with very small
strides, but after a short time they extended their
wings like sails, and scampered away with such an
amazing velocity that they scarcely seemed to touch
the ground. Whoever has seen a partridge run knows
that no man is able to keep up with him, and were he
able to make greater strides his rapidity would un-
doubtedly be still greater. The ostrich, who runs like
a partridge, possesses this advantage, and I am con-
vinced that these two birds would have distanced the
best English horses. To be sure they would not have
been able to run for so long a time, but in running a
race to a moderate distance they would certainly have
gained the prize."

3. Not only by his speed is the ostrich able to
baffle many an enemy, but the strength of his legs also
serves him as an excellent means of defense; and
many a panther or wild dog coming within reach of
his foot has had reason to repent of its temerity. But
in spite of the rapidity of his flight, during which he
frequently flings large stones backward with his foot,
and in spite of his strength, he is frequently obliged to
succumb to man, who knows how to hunt him in
various ways.

4. Unsuspicious of evil, a troop of ostriches wan-
ders through the plain, the monotony of which is only
relieved here and there by a clump of palms, a patch
of candelabra-shaped tree-euphorbias, or a vast and
solitary baobab. Some leisurely feed on the sprouts
of the acacias, or the hard leaves of the mimosas,
others agitate their wings and ventilate the delicate

THE KING OP BIRDS. 171

plumage, the possession of which is soon to prove so
fatal to them. ~No other bird is seen in their company
— for no other bird leads a life like theirs; but the
zebra and the antelope are fond of associating with the
ostrich, desirous perhaps of benefiting by the sharpness
of his eye, which is capable of discerning danger at the
utmost verge of the horizon. But in spite of its vigi-
lance, misfortunes are already gathering round the
troop, for the Bedouin has spied them out, and encir-
cles them with a ring of his fleetest coursers. In
vain the ostrich seeks to escape. One rider drives him
along to the next, the circle gradually grows narrower
and narrower, and, finally, the exhausted bird sinks
upon the ground, and receives the death-blow with
stoical resignation.

5. To surprise the cautious seal the northern Eski-
mo puts on a skin of the animal, and imitating its
motions mixes among the unsuspicious herd; and, in
South Africa, we find the Bushman resorts to a similar
stratagem to outwit the ostrich. He forms a kind of
saddle-shaped cushion, and covers it over with feathers,
so as to resemble the bird. The head and neck of an
ostrich are stuffed, and a small rod introduced. Pre-
paring for the chase, he whitens his black legs with
any substance he can procure, places the saddle on his
shoulders, takes the bottom part of the neck in his
right hand, and his bow and poisoned arrows in his
left. Under this mask he mimics the ostrich to per-
fection, picks away at the verdure, turns his head as
if keeping a sharp lookout, shakes his feathers, now
walks, and then trots, till he gets within bow-shot, and
when the flock runs, from one receiving an arrow, he

172 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

runs too. Sometimes, however, it happens that some
wary old bird suspects the cheat, and endeavors to get
near the intruder, who then tries to get out of the way,
and to prevent the bird from catching his scent, which
would at once break the spell.

6. The ostrich generally passes for a very stupid
animal, yet to protect its young it has recourse to the
same stratagems which we admire in the plover, the
oyster-catcher, and several other strand-birds. Thus
Professor Thunberg relates that riding past a place
where a hen-ostrich sat on her nest, the bird sprang up
and pursued him, in order to draw off his attention
from her young ones or her eggs. Every time the
traveler turned his horse toward her, she retreated ten
or twelve paces, but as soon as he rode on, pursued
him again.

7. The instinct of the ostrich in providing food for
its young is no less remarkable, for it is now proved
that this bird, far from leaving its eggs, like a cold-
blooded reptile, to be vivified by the sun, as was for-
merly supposed, not only hatches them with the great-
est care, but even reserves a certain portion of eggs to
provide the young with nourishment when they first
burst into life: a wonderful provision, when we con-
sider how difficult it would be for the brood to find
any other adequate food in its sterile haunts. In
Senegal, where the heat is extreme, the ostrich, it is
said, sits at night only upon those eggs which are to
be rendered fertile, but in extratropical Africa, where
the sun has less power, the mother remains constant
in her attentions to the eggs both day and night. The
number of eggs which the ostrich usually sits upon is

THE KING OF BIRDS. 173

ten; but the Hottentots, who are very fond of them,
upon discovering a nest, seize fitting opportunities to
remove one or two at a time; this induces the bird to
deposit more, and in this manner she has been known,
like the domestic hen, to lay between forty and fifty in
a season.

8. Almost as soon as the chicks of the ostrich
(which are about the size of pullets) have escaped
from the shell, they are able to walk about and to
follow the mother, on whom they are dependant for
a long time. And here again we find a wonderful
provision of nature in providing the young of the
ostrich with a color and a covering admirably suited
to the localities they frequent. The color is a kind of
pepper and salt, agreeing well with the sand and
gravel of the plains, which they are in the habit of
traversing, so that you have the greatest difficulty in
discerning the chicks even when crouching under your
very eyes. The covering is neither down nor feathers,
but a kind of prickly stubble, which no doubt is an
excellent protection against injury from the gravel
and the stunted vegetation among which they dwell.

9. The ostrich resembles in many respects the
quadrupeds, and particularly the camel, so that it
may almost be said to fill up the chasm which separates
the mammalia from the birds, and to form a connect-
ing link between them. Both the ostrich and the
dromedary have warty excrescences on the breast upon
which they lean while reposing, an almost similarly
formed foot, the same muscular neck; and when we
consider that they both feed upon the most stunted
herbage, and are capable of supporting thirst for an

174 THE ANIMAL WORLD,

incredibly long time, being, in fact, both, equally well
formed for living on the arid plains, it is certainly
not to be wondered at that the ancients gave the
ostrich a name betokening this similitude (Struthio
camelus), and that the fancy of the Arabs ascribes its
original parentage to a bird and to a dromedary.

10. It is difficult to ascertain what the tastes of
the ostrich may be while roaming the desert, but
when in captivity no other bird or animal shows less
nicety in the choice of its food, as it swallows with
avidity stones, pieces of wood and iron, spoons, knives,
and other articles of equally light digestion that may
be presented to it. " Nothing," says Methuen, speak-,
ing of a domesticated ostrich, " disturbed its diges-
tion — dyspepsia (happy thing) was undreamt of in
its philosophy. One day a Muscovy-duck brought a
promising race of ducklings into the world, and with
maternal pride conducted them forth into the yard.
Up with solemn and measured stride walked the os-
trich, and, wearing the most mild and benignant cast
of face, swallowed them all, one after the other, like
so many oysters, regarding the indignant hissings and
bristling plumage of the hapless mother with stoical
indifference."

11. The costly white plumes of the ostrich, which
are chiefly obtained from the wings, have been prized
in all ages for the elegance of their long, waving, loose,
and flexible barbs. From seventy to ninety feathers
go to the pound; but a single bird seldom furnishes
more than a dozen, as many of them are spoilt by trail-
ing or some other accident. The vagrant tribes of
the Sahara sell their ostrich plumes to the caravans

THE KING OF BIRDS. 175

which annually cross the desert, and convey them
to the ports of the Mediterranean. Here they were
purchased as far back as the twelfth or thirteenth cen-
tury, by the Pisanese or Genoese merchants, through
whose agency they ultimately crossed the Alps to dec-
orate the stately Burggrafinnen of the Rhine, or the
wives of the opulent traders of Augsburg or Nurem-
burg. At a still more remote period the Phoenicians
brought ostrich-feathers from Ophir to Tyre, whence
they were distributed among the princes of the Eastern
world.

12. In Algeria, the ostrich is often domesticated,
particularly on account of its eggs, which weigh three
pounds, and are equivalent to twenty-four of the com-
mon fowl's eggs. According to Andersson they afford
an excellent repast; while Dr. Livingstone tells us
they have a strong disagreeable flavor, which only the
keen appetite of the desert can reconcile one to. The
flesh of the ostrich is decidedly coarse, but as there is
no accounting for tastes, the Romans seem to have
prized it; and Firmus, one of their pseudo-emperors,
most likely desirous of emulating the gormandizing
powers of the bird on which he fed, is said to have de-
voured a whole ostrich at one meal.

13. A legend of the Arabs gives the following
poetical account of the origin of the crippled wings
and ruffled coat of the ostrich. " About a thousand
years ago," say the wandering tribes of Kordofan,
" the ostrich still resembled the Hubahra or Arabian
bustard, and both together inhabited the grassy plains.
Then also he flew remarkably well, nor was he so
shy as at present, when he avoids the approach of man

176 THE ANIMAL WOKLD.

with gigantic strides, but lived in friendship and con-
fidence both with him and the other animals of the
desert. One day the Hubahra thus addressed him:
' Dear brother! if thou art inclined we will, inschalla!
(with God's permission) fly to-morrow to the river,
bathe, drink, and then return to our young! ' ' Well,'
replied the ostrich; ' we will do so: ' but he did not ,
add — 'inschalla! ' for he was arrogant, and did not
bow before the might of the all-merciful and eternal
God, ' whose praise the angels in heaven proclaim, and
whose glory the thunder in the clouds celebrates,' as
hitherto he had only known His inexhaustible good-
ness, and prided himself upon his own strength and
his strong wings.

- 14. " On the following morning they prepared
for their journey, but the Hubahra before starting
said, ' Be issm lillahi! ' (in the name of Allah) while
the ostrich remained mute, and then they both flew
toward the eye of God (the sun). And the ostrich
rose higher and higher, and striking the air with his
mighty wings left the Hubahra far behind. His
heart was full of arrogance; he forgot the blessing of
Him who is the fountain of all blessings, and relied
only upon himself. But the measure of God's mercy
was filled to overflowing, and the anger of Allah was
roused against the offender. Higher and higher he
rose, as if he wanted to reach the sun. But now the
avenging angel of the Lord approached, and withdrew
the veil which separated him from the flaming orb.
In an instant his wings were burnt, and he fell miser-
ably down upon the earth. Even now he cannot fly;
even now thou seest his singed feathers; even now he

THE CHAMELEON. 177

fears God's vengeance, and endeavors to escape it with
gigantic strides. Therefore, O man! let the bird of
the desert serve thee as a warning example: hum-
ble thyself before the power of the Almighty, and
never undertake anything without saying beforehand
' inschalla! ' that the blessing of God may attend thy
work." There is evidently a great resemblance be-
tween this legend and the story of Icarus, but the
Arab tale gives an excellent moral lesson, and is im-
bued with a deep religious feeling, of which we find
no traces in the Greek.

G. Haetwig, " The Tropical World."

THE CHAMELEON.

1. Among the tree lizards, or those which rarely
crawl on the ground and never enter the water, the
chameleon is the most noticeable. This singular rep-
tile has long been famous for its power of changing
its color, a property, however, which has been greatly
exaggerated. Although all lizards are torpid, some of
them are quite capable of great activity at certain
seasons, but the chameleon is sluggish in the extreme,
being the very sloth among reptiles. When it moves
along the branch on which it is clinging the reptile
first raises one foot very slowly indeed, and will some-
times remain with its foot in air for a considerable
time, as if it had gone to sleep in the interim. It then
puts the foot slowly forward, and takes a good grasp
13

178 THE ANIMAL WOELD.

of the branch. Having satisfied itself that it is firmly
secured, it leisurely unwinds its tail, which has been
tightly twisted around the branch, shifts it a little
forward, coils it around again, and then rests for a
while. With the same slow precaution each foot is
lifted forward and advanced, the movement being
only a little faster than the hour hand of a watch.

2. The chameleon's food consists of insects, mostly
of flies, and, like many other reptiles, it is able to go
for months without food, a fact which gave rise to the
belief that the chameleon lived on the air. To judge
by externals, there never was an animal less fitted than
the -chameleon for capturing anything as active as a
fly, and yet we shall see that the lizard is well equipped
for this purpose. The tongue is the instrument by
which the fly is captured, being first deliberately
aimed like a billiard-player directing a stroke of his
cue, and then darted out with singular velocity. This
member is very muscular, and is furnished at the tip
with a kind of viscid secretion which causes the fly to
adhere to it. Its mouth is well furnished with teeth,
which are set firmly into its jaw, and enable it to
bruise the insects after getting them into its mouth by
means of the tongue.

3. The eyes have a most singular appearance, and
are worked quite independently of each other, one
rolling backward, while the other is directed forward
or upward. There is not the least spark of expression
in the eye of the chameleon, which looks about as
intellectual as a green pea with a dot of ink upon it.

4. In speaking of the changes of color in the
chameleon, Mr. Wood, the writer on natural history,

THE CHAMELEOH. 179

says: " I kept a chameleon for a long time, and care-
fully watched its changes of color. Its primary hue
was gray-black, but other colors were constantly pass*
ing over its body. Sometimes it would be striped
like a zebra with light yellow, or covered with circular
yellow spots. Sometimes it was all chestnut and black
like a leopard, and sometimes it was brilliant green.
Sometimes it would be gray, covered with black spots;
and once, when it was sitting on a branch, it took the
hue of the autumnal leaves so exactly that it could
scarcely be distinguished from them."

5. Let us now watch a chameleon on the outlook
for food. Clinging securely to one or more twigs by
means of its claw-like feet and prehensile tail, it awaits
its prey with a patience and perseverence as well as a
mute immobility that might well be imitated by holi-
day sportsmen and fishing amateurs. It remains pet-
rified in the same spot for hours, as if it were of cast
iron in a mold. But its large eyes, which are covered
over to the dimensions of a very small shining speck
with hard lids, are incessantly turning in every direc-
tion to catch a glimpse of passing prey. One of these
eyes looks forward and downward, the other upward
and backward, turning incessantly about. At last a
grasshopper or a fly settles near by. One of the roll-
ing eyes instantly notes the fact, and now the chame-
leon opens his mouth just enough to let the tip of his
thick, cylindrical tongue be seen. In another moment
out leaps the wonderful tongue missile with unerring
certainty, and swift as an arrow, and the captured
booty is in the lizard's mouth. If the post chosen
is fruitful in game, the chameleon will not stir for

180 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

hours. But if it yields only little the creature over-
comes its laziness and starts out a-hunting. Our pred-
atory marksman will now display, perhaps, the most
surprising agility and suppleness. Not only does it
use the clawed feet but the flexible tail, and the mon •
key itself could not be more lithe and active in its

motions.

Anonymous, " A World of Wonders."

TO AN INSECT.

1. I love to hear thine earnest voice,

Wherever thou art hid,
Thou testy little dogmatist,

Thou pretty Katydid!
Thou mindest me of gentlefolks, —

Old gentlefolks are they, —
Thou say'st an undisputed thing

In such a solemn way.

2. Thou art a female, Katydid!

I know it by the trill
That quivers through thy piercing notes,

So petulant and shrill.
I think there is a knot of you

Beneath the hollow tree, —
A knot of spinster Katydids, —

Do Katydids drink tea?

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 181

O, tell me where did Katy live,

And what did Katy do?
And was she very fair and young,

And yet so wicked too?
Did Katy love a naughty man,

Or kiss more cheeks than one?
I warrant Katy did no more

Than many a Kate has done.

Oliver Wendell Holmes.

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS.

1. " Behold now Behemoth, which I made with
thee; he eateth grass as an ox; his bones are as strong
pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron; he lieth
under the shady trees, in the covert of the reeds and
fens. The shady trees cover him with their shadow;
the willows of the brook compass him about. Behold
he drinketh up a river: he trusteth that he can draw
up Jordan into his mouth." Thus, in the book of Job,
we find the Hippopotamus portrayed with few words
but incomparable power.

2. According to the inspired poet, this huge ani-
mal seems anciently to have inhabited the waters of
Palestine, but now it is nowhere to be found in Asia;
and even in Africa the limits of its domain are per-
petually contracting before the persecutions of man.
It has entirely disappeared from Egypt and Cape Col-
ony, where Le Vaillant found it in numbers during
the last century. In many respects a valuable prize;

182 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

of easy destruction, in spite, or rather on account of
its size, which betrays it to the attacks of its enemies;
a dangerous neighbor to plantations, it is condemned
to retreat before the waves of advancing civilization,
and would long since have been extirpated in all
Africa, if the lakes and rivers of the interior of that
vast den of barbarism were as busily plowed over as
ours by boats and ships, or their banks as thickly
strewn with towns and villages.

3. For the hippopotamus is not able, like so many
other beasts of the wilderness, to hide itself in the
gloom of impenetrable forests, or to plunge into the
sandy desert; it requires the neighborhood of the
stream, the empire of which it divides with its am-
phibious neighbor the crocodile. Occasionally during
the day it is to be seen basking on the shore amid
ooze and mud, but throughout the night the unwieldy
monster may be heard snorting and blowing during
its aquatic gambols; it then sallies forth from its reed-
grown coverts to graze by the light of the moon, never,
however, venturing to any distance from the river,
the stronghold to which it retreats on the smallest
alarm. It feeds on grass alone, and when there is
any danger only at night. Its enormous lips act like
a mowing machine, and form a path of short cropped
grass as it goes on eating.

4. In point of ugliness the hippopotamus might
compete with the rhinoceros itself. Its shapeless car-
cass rests upon short and disproportioned legs, and,
with its vast belly almost trailing upon the ground, it
may not inaptly be likened to an overgrown " prize-
pig." Its immensely large head has each jaw armed

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 183

with two formidable tusks, those in the lower, which
are always the largest, attaining at times two feet in
length; and the inside of the mouth resembles a mass
of butcher's meat. The eyes, which are placed in
prominences like the garret windows of a Dutch
house, the nostrils, and ears, are all on the same plane,
on the upper level of the head, so that the unwieldy
monster, when immersed in its favorite element, is able
to draw breath, and to use three senses at once for
hours together, without exposing more than its snout.
The hide, which is upward of an inch and a half in
thickness, and of a pinkish-brown color, clouded and
freckled with a darker tint, is destitute of covering,
excepting a few scattered hairs on the muzzle, the
edges of the ears and tail. Though generally mild
and inoffensive, it is not to be wondered at that a
creature like this, which when full-grown attains a
length of eleven or twelve feet, and nearly the same
colossal girth, affords a truly appalling spectacle when
enraged, and that a nervous person may well lose his
presence of mind when suddenly brought into contact
with the gaping monster. Even Andersson, a man ac-
customed to all sorts of wild adventure, felt rather
discomposed when one night a hippopotamus, without
the slightest warning, suddenly protruded its enor-
mous head into his bivouac, so that every man started
to his feet with the greatest precipitation, some of the
party, in the confusion, rushing into the fire and up-
setting the pots containing the evening meal.

5. As among the elephants and other animals, el-
derly males are sometimes expelled the herd, and, for
want of company, become soured in their temper, and

184 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

so misanthropic as to attack every boat that comes near
them. The " rogue-hippopotami " frequent certain
localities well known to the inhabitants of the banks,
and, like the outcast elephants, are extremely danger-
ous. Dr. Livingstone, passing a canoe which had been
smashed to pieces by a blow from the hind foot of one
of them, was informed by his men that, in case of a
similar assault being made on his boat, the proper way
was to dive to the bottom of the river, and hold on
there for a few seconds, because the hippopotamus,
after breaking a canoe, always looks for the people on
the surface, and if he sees none, soon moves off. He
saw some frightful gashes made on the legs of the
people who, having had the misfortune to be attacked,
were unable to dive.

6. In rivers where it is seldom disturbed, such as
the Zambesi, the hippopotamus puts up its head openly
to blow, and follows the traveler with an inquisitive
glance, as if asking him, like the " moping owl " in
the elegy, why he comes to molest its " ancient soli-
tary reign? " but in other rivers, such as those of
Londa, where it is much in danger of being shot, it
takes good care to conceal its nose among water-plants,
and to breathe so quietly that one would not dream
of its existence in the river, except by footprints on the
banks. Notwithstanding its stupid look — its promi-
nent eyes and naked snout giving it more the appear-
ance of a gigantic boiled calf's head than anything
else — the huge creature is by no means deficient in in-
telligence, knows how to avoid pitfalls, and has so
good a memory that, when it has once heard a ball
whiz about its ears, it never after ceases to be wide-

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 185

awake at the approach of danger. Being vulnerable
only behind the ear, however, or in the eye, it requires
the perfection of rifle-practice to be hit; and when
once in the water, is still more difficult to kill, as it
dives and swims with all the ease of a walrus, its huge
body being rendered buoyant by an abundance of fat.
Its flesh is said to be delicious, resembling the finest
young pork, and is considered as great a delicacy in
Africa as a bear's paw or a bison's hump in the prairies
of North America. The thick and almost inflexible
hide may be dragged from the ribs in strips, like the
planks from a ship's side. These serve for the manu-
facture of a superior description of sjambok, the elastic
whip with which the Cape boer governs his team of
twelve oxen or more, while proceeding on a journey.
In Northern Africa it is used to chastise refractory
dromedaries or servants; and the ancient Egyptians
employed it largely in the manufacture of shields, hel-
mets, and javelins.

7. But the most valuable part of the hippo-
potamus is its teeth (canine and incisors), which are
considered greatly superior to elephant ivory, and,
when perfect and weighty, will fetch as much as one
guinea per pound, being chiefly used for artificial
teeth, since it does not readily turn yellow. All
these uses to which the hippopotamus may be applied
are naturally as many prices set upon its head; and
the ravages it occasions in the fields are another motive
for its destruction. On the White Nile the peasantry
burn a number of fires, to scare the huge animal from
their plantations, where every footstep plows deep
furrows into the marshy ground. At the same time,

186 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

they keep up a prodigious clamor of horns and drums,
to terrify the ruinous brute, which, as may well be
imagined, is by no means so great a favorite with
them as with the visitors of the Zoological Gardens.
They have besides another, and, where it succeeds, a
far more efficacious method of freeing themselves from
its depredations. They remark the places it most fre-
quents, and there lay a large quantity of pease.
When it comes on shore, hungry and voracious, it falls
to eating what is nearest, and fills its vast stomach with
the pease, which soon occasion an insupportable thirst.
The river being close at hand, it immediately drinks
whole buckets of water, which, by swelling the pease,
cause it to blow up, like an overloaded mortar.

8. The natives on the Teoge, and other rivers that
empty themselves into Lake Ngami, kill the hippo-
potamus with iron harpoons, attached to long lines
ending with a float. A huge reed raft, capable of car-
rying both the hunters and their canoes, with all that
is needful for the prosecution of the chase, is pushed
from the shore, and afterward abandoned to the
stream, which propels the unwieldy mass gently and
noiselessly forward. Long before the hippopotami
can be seen, they make known their presence by awful
snorts and grunts while splashing and blowing in
the water. On approaching the herd — for the gre-
garious animal likes to live in troops of from twenty-
five to thirty — the most skillful and intrepid of the
hunters stands prepared with the harpoons, while the
rest make ready to launch the canoes should the at-
tack prove successful. The bustle and noise caused
by these preparations gradually subside: at length not

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 187

even a whisper is heard, and in breathless silence the
hunters wait for the decisive conflict. The snorting
and plunging become every moment more distinct; a
bend in the stream still hides the animals from view;
but now the point is passed, and monstrous figures,
that might be mistaken for shapeless cliffs, did not
ever and anon one of them plunge and reappear, are
seen dispersed over the troubled waters. On glides
the raft, its crew worked up to the highest pitch of
excitement, and at length reaches the herd, which per-
fectly unconscious of danger, continue to enjoy their
sports. Presently one of the animals is in immediate
contact with the raft. Now is the critical moment;
the foremost harpooner raises himself to his full height
to give the greater force to the blow, and the next
instant the iron is buried deep in the body of the
bellowing hippopotamus. The wounded animal
plunges violently and dives to the bottom, but all its
efforts to escape are as ineffectual as those of the seal
when pierced with the barbed iron of the Greenlander.
9. As soon as it is struck, one or more of the men
launch a canoe from off the raft, and hastening to the
shore with the harpoon line, take a round turn with it
about a tree, so that the animal may either be brought
up at once, or should there be too great a strain on
the line, " played," like a trout or salmon by the fisher-
man. Sometimes both line and buoy are cast into the
water, and all the canoes being launched from off the
raft, chase is given to the poor brute, who whenever
he comes to the surface is saluted with a shower of
javelins. A long trail of blood marks his progress,
his flight becomes slower and slower, his breathing

188 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

more oppressive, until at last, his strength ebbing away
through fifty wounds, he floats dead on the surface.

10. But as the whale will sometimes turn upon
his assailants, so also the. hippopotamus not seldom
makes a dash at his persecutors, and either with his
tusks, or with a blow from his head, staves in or cap-
sizes the canoe. Sometimes even, not satisfied with
Wrecking his vengeance on the craft, he seizes one or
other of the crew, and with a single grasp of his jaws,
either terribly mutilates the poor wretch or even cuts
his body fairly in two.

11. The natives of Southern Africa, also resort
to the ingenious but cruel plan of destroying the hip-
popotamus by means of a trap, consisting of a beam,
four or five feet long, armed with a spear-head or hard
wood spike, covered with poison, and suspended from
a forked pole by a cord, which coming down to the
path, is held by a catch, to be set free when the beasts
tread on it. On the banks of many rivers these traps
are set over every track which the animals have made
in going up out of the water to graze; but the hippo-
potami, being wary brutes, are still very numerous.
"While Dr. Livingstone was on the river Shire, a
hippopotamus got frightened by the ship, as she was
steaming close to the banks. In its eager hurry to
escape from an imaginary danger, the poor animal fell
into a very real one, for rushing on shore, it ran di-
rectly under a trap, when down came the heavy beam
on its back, driving the poisoned spear-head a foot deep
in its flesh. In its agony, it plunged back into the
river, where it soon after expired.

G. Haetwig, " The Tropical World."

THE SPONGE. 189

THE SPONGE.

1. Among the lowest forms of life in the world,
the sponge is that which first attracts attention. This
marine animal, which, as a production of nature, has
been known from early antiquity, was a puzzle to the
early naturalists, who could not make up their minds
whether it was animal or vegetable. The curious fact
was perceived that the sponge would shrink from the
hand that grasped it, and that it clung to the rocks
on which it was fixed with much tenacity, seeming to
be endowed with an almost voluntary force. The an-
cient observers of nature also distinguished males from
females among the sponges, but still they could not
make up their minds about its exact place as animal
or plant. It was not till the studies of the great
Swedish naturalist Linnasus threw so much light on
many previously debated questions that the sponge
was finally decided to be an animal. Sponges live at
the bottom of the sea, at various depths, among the
clefts and crevices of rock, adhering not only to inor-
ganic bodies but to seaweed and animals, spreading
either erect or hanging, according to the body which
supports them.

2. In the months of April and May sponges de-
velop ova, or eggs, round, yellow, or white, from which
soon proceed embryos, furnished at one end with deli-
cate vibrating cilia or feelers. These are carried off
by the currents, or swim around the parent sponge,
seeking a place to which they may attach themselves.

190 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

They soon fix themselves to some foreign body, and
become henceforth immovable, no longer giving signs
of either sensibility or contractibility, while in their
enlargement they are completely transformed. The
substance is soon riddled with holes, and the sponge
is formed. Professor Milne Edwards considers each
sponge to be an individual by itself; and, as his opin-
ions aboutthis queer sea animal have become generally
accepted, we shall briefly give his ideas. The innu-
merable canals by which the substance of the sponge
is traversed are at once its lungs and its stomach. The
water passes into the numerous little openings into the
canals, and is the respiratory fluid. It traverses all
the different channels, and escapes by spiral openings.
The currents of water passing into the sponge not only
furnish breathing fluid, but also food, and carry off the
excrement. The walls of the canals offer a large ab-
sorbing surface, which separates the oxygen necessary
for life, and throws off the carbonic-acid gas.

3. Some sponges form masses of a light, elastic
tissue, which is at the same time resistant. The num-
ber of different species is supposed to be about four
hundred, and they are found of every diversity of size
and shape — in some cases three or four feet in diame-
ter. In many cases the skeleton of sponges consists
of horny or siliceous fibers, and hard mineral bodies
are found in them. On buying a sponge as prepared
for the market, it will be noticed that at first the sub-
stance is full of these little foreign bodies, which were
brought with it up from the deep-sea bottom. At the
present time sponge fishing takes place mostly in the
Grecian Archipelago and the Mediterranean Sea.

THE SPONGE. . 191

Sometimes the eye will discover a hundred vessels in
sight during the fishing season, which is from the first
of June to the first of November. There are about a
thousand fishing vessels engaged in the gathering of
sponges. The operations of the fishermen may be
briefly described. The inferior sponges are sought
for in shallow water in the crevices of the shore rocks,
from which they are detached by three-pronged har-
poons. This, however, injures the sponge more or
less. The finer sponge is found in deep water, and is
brought up by divers, who detach the sponge from
its rocky base by carefully cutting with a knife. This
life is accompanied by extreme danger, as the sponge
diver, like the pearl diver, is not only short-lived, in
consequence of the extreme fatigue and exposure of
his labors, but subject in a still more terrifying degree
to the attacks of that tiger of the sea, the shark, which
grows in these regions to a great size, and exhibits a
corresponding ferocity. Every sponge fleet which re-
turns with its hard-earned harvest has to report the
horrible death of not a few of the wretched divers,
whose laborious life is thus encompassed with double
perils.

4. The Archipelago furnishes for the most part
the coarser sponges, while the finer grades are found
on the coast of Syria and off Barbary. In the latter
region sponges of great fineness are also found of great
size. Some attempts have been made to naturalize
the different varieties of sponges on the coasts of
France and Algeria with a fair degree of success, and
this culture promises to be a profitable one in the
future. The more the sponges advance toward the

192 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

north in their habitat, the finer they become, the warm
tropical seas being rather favorable to the growth of
the coarser species. The fine Syrian sponge is distin-
guished for its lightness, its flaxen color, its cup-like
form, and the fineness of its texture and orifices. This
is specially used for the toilet, and its price is very
high. Tbe heavy and reddish Barbary sponge is also
valuable for domestic use on account of the facility
with which it absorbs water and its great strength.
Sponges are found in different portions of the world,
but those of the Mediterranean Sea are considered the
most valuable.

Anonymous, " A World of Wonders."

BIKDS-OF-PAKADISE.

1. The Birds-of -Paradise are a small, but renowned
family. They received their name from the idea, en-
tertained at one time, that they inhabited the region of
the Mosaic paradise. They live in a small locality in
Australasia, including Papua or New Guinea, and a
few adjacent islands. They are not easily tamed and
kept confined ; and few have been brought alive from
their native locality. Mr. Beale had one at Macao,
China, that had been in captivity nine years; several
have been kept at Amboyna, but very few have ever
been carried to Europe, although specimens of the
skins and prepared birds were taken there more than
three hundred years ago. Anthony Pigafetta, one of

BIRDS-OF-PARADISE. 193

the companions of Magellan, first imported them into
Europe in 1522.

2. In form and size they somewhat resemble our
crow, or blue-jay; but some are smaller. They are
usually included in the tribe of cone-bills, though their
bills are quite slender for that group, and a little com-
pressed. The bills are covered at the base with downy
or velvety feathers which extend over the nostrils:
their wings are long and round; the tail consists of
ten feathers, two of them, in some species, very long;
legs and feet very long, large and strong; outer toe
longer than inner, and joined to the middle one toward
the base; hind-toe very long; claws long and curved.
But they are chiefly remarkable for the wonderful de-
velopment of various parts of their plumage, and for
the metallic splendor of its rich hues. The sides of
the body, and sometimes of the head, neck, breast, or
tail, are ornamented with lengthened, peculiarly de-
veloped, and showy feathers. Says Wood : " In all
the species, the feathers glow with resplendent radi-
ance; in nearly all there is some strange and alto-
gether unique arrangement of the plumage; and, in
many, the feathers are modified into plumes, ribbons,
and streamers, that produce the most surprising and
lovely effects." The plumage of the face, breast, and
throat, is usually the richest in metallic tints, while
other parts frequently have very beautiful and bril-
liant colors.

3. Their food consists of grasshoppers, butterflies,
moths, and other insects; figs, the berries of various
trees and shrubs; seeds, rice, and other kinds of grain.
During the heat of the day they remain concealed in

14

194 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

the woods, but, in the morning and evening, come
forth to seek their food. Furious storms frequently
bring them to the ground, when they are easily taken
by the natives, who also shoot them with blunt arrows,
or take them with a noose, likewise with bird-lime, or
other glutinous substance, placed on the branches
which they frequent. They sometimes stupefy them
with cocculus indicus. Europeans shoot them with
shot-guns. The natives formerly skinned the birds,
cut off the legs and wings, and dried the skin on a
stick. Later they took out the interior organs of the
bird, cut off the legs, and smoked the birds with sul-
phur, or seared them inside with a hot iron; and, after
being thoroughly dried, they put them in the hollow
of a bamboo, to secure the plumage from injury. They
are used by the natives, the Japanese, Chinese, East
Indians, and Persians, for adorning the turbans of the
men, the head-dresses of the women, and for various
other purposes of ornament. The Chinese make imi-
tations of these birds from the feathers of parrots and
paroquets, to sell to strangers. The feathers were for-
merly, and are still, used very much as ostrich-feathers
are. By their lightness and luster, they are extremely
well suited for the ornaments of dress, and are very
highly prized. In Europe and America, at the pres-
ent time, they are sought for with avidity, to adorn
ladies' hats, etc. The birds and feathers for the Euro-
pean market are principally obtained at Batavia and
Singapore, whither the natives of Celebes, and others,
bring them from Papua and the Arroo Islands. In
India they derive much of their value from the mi-
raculous virtues which the priests have ascribed to

BIRDS-OF-PARADISE. 195

them, causing the creature that produced them to re-
ceive the title " Bird of God," Manuco-Dewata; from
which Buffon coined the modern French name, Manu-
code. Dr. Forster suggests, but perhaps without rea-
son, that this bird may have been the phoenix of an-
tiquity.

4. During the dry weather of the northwestern
monsoon, in our autumn and winter, many of the
birds leave Papua and go west to the Arroo group;
but, upon the commencement of the wet weather of
the southeastern monsoon, in our spring, they imme-
diately return to Papua. They usually fly, on these
occasions, in flocks of thirty or forty, with a reputed
leader. Their moulting-time is from May to August,
during the southeastern monsoon. On account of the
difficulty of managing their enormously-lengthened
gossamer-like plumage, they usually face the wind,
whether flying or sitting. In proceeding from one
place to another, they are often distressed by sudden
shif tings of the wind; and, being unable to proceed
in their flight against it, or go with safety before it,
they are sometimes thrown to the ground. In tem-
pestuous weather they seek the most sheltered retreats
of the thickest woods. Although very active and
sprightly, they are exceedingly shy and retiring in
their habits. The false ideas that they were footless,
lived ever on the wing, or occasionally rested sus-
pended by the tail; fed on the dew; reared their
young on the shoulders of the male, and came from
the terrestrial paradise, have all had their day, but are
too absurd to be more than alluded to now.

5. The Greater Paradise-Bird (Paradisea apoda),

196 THE ANIMAL "WOELD.

frequently called the Emerald Bird of Paradise, is
smaller than the crow. Linnseus gave the specific
name " apoda " to this bird, which was generally and
erroneously called footless, to designate the species, not
to perpetuate the error. This bird seeks the thickest
foliage of the loftiest trees, in which to remain con-
cealed during the day. The feathers on the head,
throat, and neck, are very short and dense. Those
round the base of the bill, and on the face, are velvety
and black, changing their color to green, as the direc-
tion of the light changes; those on the throat, the
front half of the neck, and the upper part of the
breast, are of a bright, deep, emerald green; those on
the head, back of the neck, and the shoulders, are of a
light, golden yellow. The eye is at the common point
between these colors. If lines were drawn from it to
the throat, to the forehead, and down the sides of the
neck, and curved to a point on the breast, they would
indicate very well the limits of the colors. The back,
wings, tail, and belly, are of a bright, reddish chest-
nut, the breast being a little darker, and inclining to
purple. From each side beneath the wings proceed
a large number of long, floating, graceful plumes, some
eighteen inches in length, of exceeding delicacy of
texture and appearance. These extend far beyond
the tail-feathers, which are about six inches long, and
" their translucent golden-white veinlets produce a
most superb effect, as they cross and recross each other,
forming every imaginable shade of white, gold, and
orange, and then deepening toward their extremities
into a soft, purplish red." From the upper part of
the tail proceed two black shafts or filaments, some

BIKDS-OF-PARADISE. 197

eighteen inches long, appearing like small wires, about
one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter. The female has
no floating plumes, no gem-like feathers, and no bril-
liant colors. The head is dark-brown; the neck, light-
brown; the upper parts of the body, wings, and tail,
reddish chestnut; the breast and belly, white.

6. In Bennett's " "Wanderings " is an interesting
description of Mr. Beale's bird, at Macao. The writer
says: " This elegant creature has a light, playful, and
graceful manner, with an arch and impudent look;
dances about when a visitor approaches the cage, and
seems delighted at being made an object of admiration.
Its notes are very peculiar, resembling the cawing of
a raven; but its tones are, by far, more varied. It
washes itself regularly, twice daily, and, after having
performed its ablutions, throws its delicate feathers
up, nearly over the head, the quills of which feathers
have a peculiar structure, so as to enable the bird to
effect this object. Its food, during confinement, is
boiled rice, mixed up with soft eggs, together with
plantains, and living insects of the grasshopper tribe;
these insects, when thrown to him, the bird contrives
to catch in his beak with great celerity; but, if,
through failure to catch them, they should fall to the
floor, he will not descend to them, appearing to be
fearful that, in so doing, he would soil his delicate
plumage; he will eat insects in a living state, but will
not touch them when dead. One of the best oppor-
tunities of seeing this splendid bird, in all its beauty
of actions, as well as display of plumage, is early in the
morning, when he makes his toilet; the beautiful sub-
alar plumage is then thrown out and cleaned from any

198 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

spot that may sully its purity, by being passed gently
through the bill; the short, chocolate-colored wings
are extended to the utmost, and he keeps them in a
steady, napping motion, as if in imitation of their
use in flight, at the same time raising up the delicate,
long feathers over the back, which are spread in a
chaste and elegant manner, floating like films in the
ambient air. In this position the bird would remain
for a short time, seemingly proud of its heavenly
beauty, and in raptures of delight with its most en-
chanting self; it will then assume various attitudes,
so as to regard its plumage in every direction. Hav-
ing completed its toilet, it utters the usual cawing
notes, at the same time looking archly at the spectators,
as if ready to receive all the admiration that it con-
siders its elegant form and display of plumage demand.
It then takes exercise by hopping in a rapid but grace-
ful manner from one end of the upper perch to the
other, and descends suddenly upon the second perch,
close to the bars of the cage, looking out for the grass-
hoppers, which it is accustomed to receive about this
time."

7. Vanity and egotism, as usually developed, are
exceedingly offensive and distasteful; but when we
see a delicate creature, so richly embellished, so neat
and cleanly in its habits, so fastidious in its tastes, so
scrupulously exact in its observances, and so winning
in all its ways, as to etherealize the commonest actions,
they become not only endurable, but amusing, and
even enjoyable. And if a bird, in a state of hopeless
captivity, exhibits such marked traits of character, acts
out so truthfully the promptings of its nature, shows

A Costa Ricau Owl.

THE OWL. 199

so evidently its desire to please, and possesses so nice an
appreciation of being admired, how perfect must be
all its ways and actions, as developed in the pure,
bright air, fragrant groves, and luxuriant surround-
ings of its native haunts!

James H. Partridqe, " The Popular Science Monthly."

THE OWL.

In the hollow tree, in the old gray tower,

The spectral owl doth dwell;
Dull, hated, despised, in the sunshine hour,

But at dusk he's abroad and well!
Not a bird of the forest e'er mates with him;

All mock him outright by day;
But at night, when the woods grow still and dim,

The boldest will shrink away!

0, when the night falls, and roosts the fowl,
Then, then, is the reign of the homed owl!

And the owl hath a bride, who is fond and bold,

And loveth the wood's deep gloom;
And, with eyes like the shine of the moonstone cold,

She awaiteth her ghastly groom;
Not a feather she moves, not a carol she sings,

As she waits in her tree so still;
But when her heart heareth his napping wings,

She hoots out her welcome shrill!

0, when the moon shines, and dogs do howl,
Then, then, is the joy of the homed owl!

200 THE ANIMAL WOELB.

3. Mourn not for the owl, nor his gloomy plight!
The owl hath his share of good :
If a prisoner he be in the broad daylight,

He is lord in the dark greenwood! .
Nor lonely the bird, nor his ghastly mate,

They are each unto each a pride;
Thrice fonder, perhaps, since a strange, dark fate
Hath rent them from all beside!

80, when the night falls, and dogs do howl,
Sing, ho! for the reign of the homed owl!
We Jcnow not alway
Who are Icings by day,
But the king of the night is the bold brown
owl!

Bryan W. Procter.

MICKOSCOPIC ANIMALCULES.

1. The animalcules which comprise the micro-
scopic world have for a long time been known by the
name of Infusoria, but the term ought to be aban-
doned, as many of these creatures do not live in infu-
sions, but, on the contrary, inhabit the sea and fresh
water. It would therefore be better to substitute the
names Microzoa and Protozoa; the former meaning
little animals, the latter the obscure beginnings of
animal organization. For a long time the anatomy
of these invisible beings appeared a perfect mystery,
and men despaired of ever comprehending it. Baron
Gleichen, having steeped carmine in water containing

MICROSCOPIC ANIMALCULES. 201

some of these animalcules, was quite astonished to see
them fill themselves with ^coloring matter. But this
important fact passed unnoticed. Buffon and Lamarck
still continued to look upon them as simple little
masses of animated gelatin. A French naturalist,
Dujardin, reared up a complete theory on these data.
According to him the tissue of the animalcule repre-
sents a sort of spongy woof, capable of hollowing itself
out into accidental cavities, which admit food and
expel it by means of an outlet which opens for this
purpose in the surface of the body. A strange hypoth-
esis, according to which the microzoon hollows out
for itself stomachs in its own proper substance and of
its own free will!

2. The difficulty is to believe that such a theory
held sway in France long after the publication of
Ehrenberg's magnificent work on " The Infusoria,"
in which the learned Prussian naturalist demonstrated,
for the first time, that these creatures, notwithstanding
their extreme minuteness, possess in some cases a sur-
prisingly complicated internal organization. Their
form is, as a rule, fixed, and it is quite an exception
that some of them change at will, and present to the
eyes of the astonished observers so many different
aspects, that at the expiration of five minutes they can-
not be recognized. At one moment they are globular
or three-cornered; an instant after they are seen tak-
ing on the appearance of a star. Accordingly, these
creatures, the forms of which elude our grasp, have
received the name of Protei, from the enchanter of
Virgil, who by his wonderful metamorphoses was en-
abled to escape the notice of every one. Some animal-

202 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

cules of this class surround themselves with impro-
vised feet like living roots, the arrangement of which
they are seen varying in a thousand ways. Sometimes
they lengthen them out preposterously, sometimes they
make them entirely disappear. They scatter them,
weld them together, or entwine them like the locks of
a Gorgon.

3. The microscopic world also has its extremes.
There is as wide a distance between the bulk of its
tiniest representative, the crepuscular monad, and that
of one of its largest, the hooded Colpodos, as there is
between a beetle and an elephant. Nothing is more
marvelous than the organization of these invisible
beings, and if attentive observations had not placed the
facts beyond doubt, men might have been tempted to
think that the accounts given by naturalists were pure
fiction or else audacious falsehoods.

4. A single Microzoon has, so to speak, no weight;
placed in the most sensitive balance it does not impart
to it the slightest oscillation. The whale, on the other
hand, attains a length of one hundred feet, and a
weight of two hundred tons — more than the weight of
an army of three thousand men; and yet, the profu-
sion of vital apparatus in the Microzoa sometimes ex-
ceeds that which is seen in these large animals, and in
many others. There are some which possess fifteen to
twenty stomachs, or even more. In addition there is,
in some Infusoria, a curious mechanism appended
to this superabundance of organs — one of the stomachs
being furnished with teeth of extreme delicacy, which
can be seen through the transparent body moving and
crushing the food. Notwithstanding the extreme

MICROSCOPIC ANIMALCULES. 203

minuteness of these creatures, which remained un-
known through so many ages, Nature has expended
the most watchful care upon them. Some of them
are sheltered heneath a calcareous cuirass; and in
many the protecting carapace is indestructible, and of
the nature of flint, being formed of silex.

5. According to Ehrenberg some of the Infusoria
have even eyes, which at times present the appearance
of flaming red pupils. If we could suppose organs of
such minuteness possessing a field of vision large
enough to allow these animalcules to see us with the
instruments which we use to observe them, can we
imagine what a terrific impression we must make upon
them when they see themselves in our hands. Lastly,
many of these animalcules have, in the interior of the
body, large cavities which incessantly empty and fill
themselves with colored fluid. These cavities repre-
sent the heart of large animals, and their fluid the
blood; and this circulating system is relatively so large ,
that it may be stated, without any exaggeration, that
some microscopic beings have hearts fifty times as
large and as strong in proportion as that of the horse
or ox.

6. If the wonderful organic perfection of those
living corpuscles surpass all our preconceived ideas,
their perpetual activity affords ground for no less
astonishment. The life of all animals is made up of
alternate action and repose, of movement which wastes
the forces, and sleep which repairs them; but the
Infusoria are strangers to anything of the kind; their
life is an emblem of incessant agitation. Ehrenberg,
who observed them at all hours of the night, always

204: THE ANIMAL WORLD.

found them in movement, and accordingly concluded
that they had neither rest nor sleep! Even the plant,
exhausted by its life, mounting unseen through its
tissues, sleeps at the close of day; the animalcule, not-
withstanding its prodigious activity, does not. Struck
with the fact, Owen has conjectured that this extraor-
dinary activity might be due to the enormous develop-
ment of the digestive system in the Infusoria, seeing
that a man, a lion, or a tiger has only one stomach, an
ox or a camel four or five, while invisible Microzoa
have sometimes a hundred!

7. In proportion as science has been perfected the
horizon of life has been enlarged, and a microscopic
world, full of animated existence, has been revealed
in every spot to which investigation has been able to
reach. The polar ices, the elevated regions of the
atmosphere, and the gloomy depths of ocean, are peo-
pled with living organisms; and everywhere their
prodigious concentration astonishes us as much as the
infinite variety of their forms. If the beautiful dis-
coveries of Ehrenberg did not prove the fact, who
would believe that these tiny creatures, so minute as
to be invisible, possess more vital resistance than the
most vigorous animals? Where the severity of the
climate kills the most robust of the vegetable world,
where a few scattered animals pick up a precarious
subsistence, the delicate organism of the Microzoa
suffers no injury from the most terrible cold that is
experienced. More than fifty species of animalcules
with siliceous carapaces were discovered by Captain
Sir James Ross on the rounded masses of ice which
float in the Polar Seas at the seventy-eighth degree of

MICROSCOPIC ANIMALCULES. 205

south latitude. Some of those which this navigator
collected in the vicinity of Victoria Land, in spite of
distance and storms, arrived full of vitality at Berlin.

8. In these desolate regions the depths of ocean
offer to the view even more life than its surface. In
the Gulf of Erebus, the plummet brought up, from a
depth of more than five hundred yards, seventy-eight
species of siliceous Microzoa; and they have been dis-
covered at a depth of more than twelve thousand feet,
where they had to support the enormous pressure of
three hundred and seventy-five atmospheres — a pres-
sure capable of bursting a cannon, but which the
gelatinous body of a microscopic infusorium resists in
some marvelous way. These living corpuscles, which
swarm in the transparent regions of the ocean, abound
equally in the muddy waters of our rivers and ponds,
and without being aware of it we daily swallow myri-
ads of them in the fluids we drink. If with the aid
of the microscope we were to scrutinize everything
that a single drop of water sometimes contains, there
would be seen enough to frighten many people.

9. Every one who has sailed at night upon the sea,
or passed along its shores, is acquainted with the phe-
nomenon of phosphorescence, which for a long time
puzzled the sagacity of the learned. It was attributed
to very different causes, but is now known to depend
upon the presence of a multitude of animals. Some-
times, when of small extent, it is caused by fish trav-
ersing the waves like a flaming arrow; at other times
it is owing to the presence of the Medusce, the brilliant
disks of which are seen calm and motionless in the
depths of the waters; or to the Physophora, trailing

206 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

behind them their tresses all spangled with stars like
those of Berenice in the firmament. Certain mol-
lusks, too, though enveloped in their shells, are never-
theless phosphorescent. Even Pliny remarked that
the mouths of persons who had eaten Pholades were
quite luminous.

10. This phenomenon, however, is most fre-
quently seen in places where the sea is in movement;
every wave then rolls with luminous foam against
the prow of the ship, and the billows gleam like the
starry sky. These myriads of phosphorescent par-
ticles, which make the sea sparkle, are only Microzoa
of extreme minuteness, but of which the bulk is in-
creased a hundred-fold by their splendor. The ocean
produces these animalcules in almost every part. Each
bed of it, says Humboldt, is peopled with them at
depths which exceed the height of the greatest moun-
tain chains, and under the influence of certain mete-
orological changes we see them rise to the surface of
its watery sheet, where they form immense luminous
furrows in the wake of the ships.

11. Water presents another peculiarity equally
curious, and for a long time inexplicable. At times
it takes on a blood-red tint, which in every age has
startled and alarmed the vulgar. From the remotest
times men kept asking what might be the cause of this
phenomenon, which had so much of the marvelous
about it, and it was only explained on some strange
hypothesis or other. But since the discovery of the
microscope it has been thoroughly investigated, and it
has been shown that the redness of the water depends
upon the presence of extremely small plants and ani-

MICROSCOPIC ANIMALCULES. 207

mals, which, under the influence of certain atmos-
pheric conditions, multiply in such abundance, that
the mind only with difficulty realizes the marvelous
nature of their procreation.

12. A Belgian savant, M. Morren, after collect-
ing together nearly all that had been written on the
subject of red water from the days of Moses up to our
own, gives a list of twenty-two species of animals, and
almost as many plants, capable of communicating this
blood color.

13. When Ehrenberg planted his tent by the
shore of the Red Sea, near the town of Tor, not far
from Mount Sinai, he had the rare good fortune to
behold this sea tinged with the blood-red color to
which, from the remotest antiquity, it has owed its
name. At this very time its waves deposited on the
shore a gelatinous matter of a beautiful purple color,
which the great Prussian naturalist recognized as be-
ing composed of a single microscopic alga, the Red
Trichodesmia, the sole cause of this celebrated phe-
nomenon.

F. A. Pouchet, " The Universe."

208 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

THE METAMOEPHOSIS OF INSECTS.

1. The grand peculiarity of insects is their meta-
morphosis, or change of form. Almost every insect
undergoes this change, there being commonly three
distinct changes of being. In the first stage the insect
is a crawling caterpillar or a -worm. In its second
stage it is wrapped up in a covering prepared for the
purpose* and is in a state of sleep. During this sleep
great changes are going on. When these are com-
pleted it is a winged animal,- its wings being closely
folded up. In due time it comes out of its prison, and
spreads its wings for flight. It is now deemed to have
arrived at its perfect condition.

2. In its first stage it is called a Larva, this being
the Latin word for mask, the idea being that the insect
is now not in its true state or character, but is in a
masked condition, from which it will after a while
come out. When it does so it is called the Imago, or
said to be in the imago state. The insect is now the
image or representative in full of its species. Its
sleeping state, the one intermediate between the larva
state and the imago state, is a transition one. In this
the insect is changing from a crawling to a flying ani-
mal. It is now termed a Pupa, the Latin for baby,
because it commonly appears somewhat like an infant
trussed up with bandages, as has sometimes been the
fashion in some nations.

3. The different larvae of insects have the different
names of maggot, grub, and caterpillar, according to

THE METAMORPHOSIS OF INSECTS. 209

their form and appearance. The pupse of butterflies
and moths were formerly called chrysalids and aure-
lias, because the coverings of some of them have spots
of a golden hue. The term chrysalis is often used at
the present day as synonymous with pupa, and this
state of the insect is called the chrysalid state.

4. The changes which take place in,the pupa state
are very great, even radical ones. There is commonly
no resemblance between the Larva and its Imago.
There may be great beauty in the Imago, and none in
the Larva, and sometimes the reverse is the case.
Then, as to form and general structure, the contrast
is of the most marked character. In the larva state
it was a slow, crawling animal, but in the imago state
it is light, perhaps delicate in structure, and is nimble
on the wing. And the change is as great internally
as it is externally. Its stomach even is changed, for
its mode of getting a livelihood is different now.
There are corresponding changes about the mouth,
a coiled tongue perhaps appearing in place of the for-
midable gnawing apparatus of the larva. In relation
to this change it has been well said, " Were a natural-
ist to announce to the world the discovery of an animal
which for the first five years of its life existed in the
form of a serpent; which then, penetrating into the
earth, and wearing a shroud of pure silk of the finest
texture, contracted itself within this covering into a
body without external mouth or limbs, and resem-
bling more than anything else an Egyptian mummy;
and which, lastly, after remaining in this state, for
three years longer, should, at the end of that period,
burst its cerements, struggle through its earthly cov-
15

210 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

ering, and start into day a winged bird, what would be
the sensation excited by this piece of intelligence? "
And yet this would be no more wonderful than the
ordinary metamorphosis of insects. Indeed, many of
the most marvelous circumstances in this change are
not at all referred to in the supposition above made.

5. The larva is produced from an egg, and the egg
is laid by the perfect insect or imago. When the larva
is first hatched it is very small, but it grows with a
rapidity always great, in some cases enormous. The
maggots of flesh flies are said to increase in weight
two hundred times in twenty-four hours. To make
such an increase these animals must eat voraciously.
With the great multiplication of their number, the
amount which a collection of them will sometimes
devour is wonderful. Linnaeus calculated that three
flesh flies and their immediate progeny would eat up
the carcass of a horse sooner than a lion would do it.

6. In the imago state the insect eats but little, as
it grows little or none ordinarily. The butterfly or
moth comes forth from its prison fully grown; but
the caterpillar from which it was formed was very
small at the' outset, and became large by large eating.
Our common flies are small and delicate eaters, but
the maggots, the larvae from which they came, rioting
in filth, devour largely what the flies will not touch.
The great growth of larvae obliges them to cast their
skins repeatedly. The silkworm and other caterpil-
lars cast their skins about four times during their
growth.

7. Insects pass the time of their pupa state under
various circumstances. Some, when about going into

s

THE METAMORPHOSIS OP INSECTS. 211

this state, crawl into some by-place away from in-
truders. Some work their way into the ground, and
perhaps spin a silken lining for the earth-cells in which
they are to sleep through their change. Some roll
themselves up in leaves. Some construct for them-
selves a silken house, called a cocoon, attached to some
leaf or twig.

8. Among those that do this last is the silkworm.
The formation of the cocoon I will describe. When
the worm has its silk factory, which is near its mouth,
properly stocked with the gummy pulp from which
the silk is to be spun, it seeks a good place where it can
have a sort of scaffolding for its cocoon. It first spins
some loose floss, attaching it to things around. Next
it begins to wind its silk round and round, making a
cocoon at length, shaped much like a pigeon's egg, be-
ing smaller at one end than the other. It thus gradu-
ally shuts itself up in a silken prison. The last of the
silk which it spins is the most delicate of all, and it is
well glued together, making a very smooth surface
next to the silkworm's body. The silken house being
constructed, it now prepares itself for its sleep and its
change. It sheds its skin now for the fourth and last
time, tucking its old clothes, as we may say, very
snugly at one end of the cocoon. It then passes into
its sleep, and a new and thin skin is formed over it, in
which it gradually changes into an animal endowed
with wings. At the proper time it works its way out
of its prison, unfolds its wings, and flies off, not to eat
mulberry leaves, as it did in the larva state, but to sip
the honey from the flowers.

9. Observe the manner of its exit and the arrange-

212 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

ments for it. The head is always at the small end
of the cocoon, and here the silk is less closely wound
and less tightly cemented by the gluey substance.
The old clothes are always at the other end, so as not
to be in the way. The new coat which was formed
as it entered the pupa state is easily torn, and the
moth, moistening the cocoon with a fluid from" its
mouth at the part where it is to escape, easily forces
its way through. The opening from which it emerges
is very small, and the shape of the animal before it
expands its wings is that of a long bundle.

10. The thread with which the worm makes its
cocoon is an unbroken one. It can, therefore, be un-
wound qr reeled off, which is done in obtaining it for
manufacture. For this purpose the cocoons are ex-
posed to the heat of an oven in order to kill the pupae
in them, and then, by a little soaking in warm water,
the glutinous matter which unites the silk is so sof-
tened that the thread can be readily unwound. The
length of it varies from six hundred to a thousand
feet; and as it is double as spun out by the insect, its
real length is nearly two thousand feet. So fine is this
double thread, that the silk that comes from one co-
coon does not weigh above three and a half grains,
and it requires ten thousand cocoons to supply five
pounds of silk. The native countries of the silkworm
are China and the East Indies; and in ancient times
the manufacture of silk was confined to them. So
scarce was the article in other countries, even as late
as James I. of England, that this monarch, before
his accession to the throne, wore on some public oc-
casion a borrowed pair of silk stockings. But at the

THE METAMORPHOSIS OP INSECTS. 213

present time the culture of the silkworm and the
manufacture of silk are so widely diffused, that silk
is everywhere, in civilized communities, one of the
common articles of dress.

11. When a pupa is to remain out of doors all
the winter, special pains are taken to guard it against
the cold. For this purpose great numbers of insects
in the autumn dig their way down into the ground,
and pass their pupa state in an earthy cell below the
reach of frost. Some line this cell with silk, making
thus a soft covering for the body, and shutting out
more effectually the cold. Some of the caterpillars
accomplish the same object by constructing above
ground a cocoon specially adapted to guard against
the cold. This is exemplified in the case of one of
the largest and most splendid of our American moths
— the Cecropia moth. It is found, as Professor Jaeger
states, all the way from the Canadas to the Mexican
Gulf, and also in all the Western States. It has large
wings, measuring five to six inches from tip to tip.
The scales on them are dusky brown. The borders
of the wings are richly variegated, the anterior ones
having near their tops a dark spot resembling an eye,
and both pairs having kidney-shaped red spots. In
this case the caterpillar, or larva, is nearly as beauti-
ful in colors as the perfect insect or imago. It is of
a light green color, and has coral-red warts, with short
black bristles, over its body. It feeds on the leaves of
trees till August or September, and then descends to
seek for some currant or barberry bush upon which
it may build its house for its winter sleep. " Any
one," says Professor Jaeger, " who meets with these

214 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

caterpillars in the above-mentioned months may have
the pleasure of witnessing their metamorphosis into
cocoons, and several months after into an elegant
moth, by taking them up very carefully upon leaves
and carrying them home, placing them in a spacious
box, with a little undisturbed earth at the bottom,
and then putting into it some dry brush-wood, about
one foot high, and covering the whole with gauze in
order to prevent their escape."

12. I will now describe the peculiar construction
of the cocoon. That of the silkworm is a simple
cocoon, no special provision being made against the
cold, as the pupa state, instead of lasting through the
winter months, is finished in a few weeks. But in the
case of the Ceeropia moth there is a covering outside
of the proper cocoon. This covering is fastened to a
branch of some bush. It is made very strong, as its
fibers are much more closely joined together than
those of the cocoon inside of it. Often there are leaves
attached to it, leaving the impression of their veins
or nerves upon it when you have detached them. The
animal evidently uses these leaves as a sort of scaffold-
ing when it begins to construct its winter home. In
spinning this covering it works all the while inside,
as it does in spinning the cocoon. After finishing
it, it lines it with coarse loose silk, and then proceeds,
to spin its cocoon in the same way that the silkworm
does, making it of the same shape. The loose silk
between the cocoon and the outer covering is blan-
keting for the purpose of warmth. By these means
the pupa or chrysalis is secured against dampness and
cold, and amid all the storms of winter is even more

THE METAMORPHOSIS OF INSECTS. 215

safe from harm than an infant in its cradle under
the watch of an anxious mother.

13. As in the case of the silkworm moth, the
Cecropia always comes out at the smaller end, and
here both the cocoon and the outer covering are
made less close and strong than in the other portions.
In New England this moth comes forth in June.
Last year I obtained from my garden two cocoons
which were near each other on a currant bush. I
gave one to a lad living on Staten Island, and re-
tained the other myself. His moth came out three
weeks before mine, corresponding with the advance
of the season there before ours. When mine emerged
I caught the same evening in my house two others,
and on the following evening three more. As we saw
none before or after, this seems to show that these
moths come forth almost simultaneously in the same
locality.

14. Dr. Harris, in his work on the " Insects of
!New England," recommends a trial of the manufac-
ture of silk from the cocoons of the Cecropia and
some other of our large indigenous moths. " Their
large cocoons," he says, " consisting entirely of silk,
the fibers of which far surpass those of the silkworm
in strength, might be employed in the formation of
fabrics similar to those manufactured in India from
the cocoons of the Tusseh and Arindi silkworms, the
durability of which is such that a garment of Tusseh
silk is scarcely worn out in the lifetime of one person,
but often descends from mother to daughter; and
even the covers of palanquins made of it, though ex-
posed to the influence of the weather, last many years.

216 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

Experiments have been made with the silk of the
Cecropia, which has been carded and spun, and woven
into stockings that wash like linen." The silk can
be very easily reeled off from the cocoons.

15. Some insects go through an imperfect meta-
morphosis,' as the grasshoppers and locusts. They are
produced from the eggs without wings, but have been
formed gradually while they are in a state of activity.
Worthington Hooker, " Natural History."

THE ARTIFICES OF ANIMALS.

1. The deer kind are remarkable for the arts
they employ in order to deceive the dogs. With this
view the stag often returns twice or thrice upon his
former steps. He endeavors to raise hinds or younger
stags to follow him, and draw off the dogs from the
immediate object of their pursuit. If he succeeds
in this attempt, he then flies off with redoubled speed,
or springs off at a side, and lies down on his belly to
conceal himself. When in this situation, if by any
means his trail is recovered by the dogs, they pursue
him with more advantage, because he is now consid-
erably fatigued. No other resource is now left him
but to fly from the earth which he treads, and go
into the waters, in order to cut off the scent from the
dogs, when the huntsmen again endeavor to put them
on his trail. After taking to the water the stag is so
much exhausted that he is incapable of running much

THE ARTIFICES OP ANIMALS. 217

farther, and is soon at bay, or, in other words, turns
and defends himself against the hounds. In this situ-
ation he often wounds the dogs, and even the hunts-
men, by blows with the horns, till one of them cuts
his hams to make him fall, and then puts a period to
his life.

2. The fallow-deer are more delicate, less savage,
and approach nearer to the domestic state than the
stag: They associate in herds, which generally keep
together. When great numbers are assembled in one
park, they commonly form themselves into two dis-
tinct troops, which soon become hostile, because they
are both ambitious of possessing the same part of the
inclosure. Each of these troops has its own chief or
leader, who always marches foremost, and he is uni-
formly the oldest and strongest of the herd. The
others follow him; and the whole draw up in order
of battle, to force the other troop, who observe the
same conduct, from the best pasture. When hunted,
they run not straight out, like the stag, but double,
and endeavor to conceal themselves from the dogs
by various artifices, and by substituting other ani-
mals in their place. When fatigued and heated, how-
ever, they take to the water, but never attempt to
cross such large rivers as the stag does.

3. The roe-deer is inferior to the stag and fallow-
deer, both in strength and stature; but he is endowed
with more gracefulness, courage, and vivacity. His
eyes are more brilliant and animated. His limbs are
more nimble; his movements are quicker, and he
bounds with equal vigor and agility. He is, likewise,
more crafty, conceals himself with greater address,

218 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

and derives superior resources from his instincts.
Though he leaves behind him a stronger scent than
the stag, which increases the ardor of the dogs, he
knows how to evade their pursuit, by the rapidity
with which he commences his flight, and by numerous
doublings. He delays not his arts of defense till his
strength begins to fail him ; for he no sooner perceives
that the efforts of a rapid flight have been unsuccess-
ful, than he repeatedly returns upon his former steps;
and after confounding, by these opposite motions,
the direction he has taken, after intermixing the pres-
ent with the past emanations of his body, he, by a
great bound, rises from the earth, and, retiring to a
side, lies down flat upon his belly. In this immov-
able situation, he often allows the whole pack of his
deceived enemies to pass very near him. The roe-
deer differs from the stag in disposition, manners, and
in almost every natural habit. Instead of associating
in herds, they live in separate families. The two par-
ents and the young go together, and never mingle with
strangers. When threatened with danger, the mother
hides her young in a close thicket; and so strong is
her parental affection, that, in order to preserve them
from destruction, she presents herself to be chased.

4. Hares form seats, or nests, on the surface of
the ground, where they watch, with the most vigilant
attention, the approach of any danger. In order to
deceive, they conceal themselves between clods of the
same color with their own hair. When pursued, they
first run with rapidity, and then double or return upon
their former steps. From the place of starting, the
females run not so far as the males; but they double

THE ARTIFICES OP ANIMALS. 219

more frequently. Hares hunted in the place where
they are brought forth, seldom remove to a great dis-
tance from it, but return to their farm; and when
chased two days successively, on the second day they
perform the same doublings they had practiced the
day before. When hares run straight out to a great
distance, it is a proof that they are strangers.

5. The fox has, in all ages and nations, been cele-
brated for craftiness and address. Acute and circum-
spect, sagacious and prudent, he diversifies his con-
duct, and always reserves some art for unforeseen
accidents. Though nimbler than the wolf, he trusts
not entirely to the swiftness of his course. He knows
how to insure safety by providing himself with an
asylum, to which he retires when danger appears. He
is not a vagabond, but lives in a settled habitation,
and in a domestic state. The choice of situation, the
art of making and rendering a house commodious, and
of concealing the avenues which lead to it, imply a
superior degree of sentiment and reflection. The fox
possesses these, qualities, and employs them with dex-
terity and advantage. He takes up his abode on the
border of a wood, and in the neighborhood of cottages.
Here he listens to the crowing of the cocks and the
noise of the poultry. He scents them at a distance.
He chooses his time with great judgment and discre-
tion. He conceals both his route and his design. He
moves forward with caution, sometimes even trailing
his body, and seldom makes a fruitless expedition.
"When he leaps the wall, or gets in underneath it, he
ravages the courtyard, puts all the fowls to death,
and then retires quietly with his prey, which he either

220 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

conceals under the herbage, or carries off to his ken-
nel. The young hares he hunts in the plains, seizes
old ones in their seats, digs out the rabbits in the
warrens, finds out the nests of partridges, quails, etc.,
seizes the mothers on the eggs, and destroys a pro-
digious number of game. Dogs of all kinds spon-
taneously hunt him. When pursued, he runs to his
hole; and it is not uncommon to send in terriers to
detain him till the hunters remove the earth above,
and either kill or seize him alive.

6. The most certain method, however, of destroy-
ing a fox is to begin with shutting up the hole, to
station a man with a gun near the entrance, and then
to search about with the dogs. "When they fall in with
him, he immediately makes for his hole. But, when
he comes up to it, he is met with a discharge from the
gun. If the shot misses him, he flies off at full speed,
takes a wide circuit, and returns to the hole, where
he is fired upon a second time; but, when he discovers
that the entrance is shut, he darts away straight for-
ward, with the intention of never revisiting his former
habitation. He is next pursued by the hounds, whom
he seldom fails to fatigue; because, with much cun-
ning, he passes through the thickest part of the forest,
or places of the most difficult access, where the dogs
are hardly able to follow him; and, when he takes to
the plains, he runs straight out, without either stop-
ping or doubling. But the most effectual way of
destroying foxes is to lay snares baited with live
pigeons, fowls, etc. The fox is an exceedingly vora-
cious animal. Besides all kinds of flesh and fish, he
devours, with equal avidity, eggs, milk, cheese, fruits,

THE ARTIFICES OF ANIMALS. 221

and particularly grapes. He is so extremely fond of
honey that he attacks the nests of wild bees. They
at first put him to flight by numberless stings; but
he retires for the sole purpose of rolling himself on
the ground, and of crushing the bees. He returns to
the charge so often that he obliges them to abandon
the hive, which he soon uncovers, and devours both
the honey and the wax.

7. Birds have such an antipathy against him that
they no sooner perceive him than they send forth
shrill cries to advertise their neighbors of the enemy's
approach. The jays and blackbirds, in particular,
follow him from tree to tree, sometimes two or three
hundred paces, often repeating the watch-cries. The
Count de Buffon kept two young foxes, which, when
at liberty, attacked the poultry; but, after they were
chained, they never attempted to touch a single fowl.
A living hen was then placed near them for whole
nights; and, though destitute of victuals for many
hours, in spite of hunger and opportunity, they never
forgot that they were chained, and gave the hen no
disturbance.

8. With regard to birds, their artifices are not
less numerous nor less surprising than those of quad-
rupeds. The eagle and hawk kinds are remarkable
for the sharpness of their sight, and the arts they em-
ploy in catching their prey. Their movements are
rapid or slow, according to their intentions, and the
situation of the animals they wish to devour. Ra-
pacious birds uniformly endeavor to rise higher in
the air than their prey, that they may have an oppor-
tunity of darting forcibly down upon it with their

222 THE ANIMAL WOELD.

pounces. To counteract these artifices, Nature has
endowed the smaller and more innocent species of
birds with many arts of defense. When a hawk ap-
pears, the small birds, if they find it convenient, con-
ceal themselves in hedges or brushwood. When de-
prived of this opportunity, they often, in great num-
bers, seem to follow the hawk, and to expose them-
selves unnecessarily to danger, while in fact, by their
numbers, their perpetual changes of direction, and
their uniform endeavors to rise above him, they per-
plex him to such a degree that he is unable to fix upon
a single object; and, after exerting all his art and
address, he is frequently obliged to relinquish the
pursuit. When in the extremity of danger, and after
employing every other artifice in vain, small birds
have been often known to fly to men for protection.
This is a plain indication that these animals, though
they in general avoid the human race, are by no
means so much afraid of man as of rapacious
birds.

9. Of the economy of the inhabitants of the water
our knowledge is rather limited. But, as the ocean
exhibits a perpetual and general scene of attack and
defense, the arts of assault and of evasion must, of
course, be exceedingly various. For the preserva-
tion of some species of fishes, Nature has armed them
with strong and sharp pikes. Others, as the perch
kind, are defended by strong, bony rays in their fins.
Others, as the univalve shell-fish, retire into their
shells upon the approach of danger. The bivalves and
multivalves, when attacked, instantly shut their shells,
which, in* general, is a sufficient protection to them.

THE ARTIFICES OF ANIMALS. 223

Some univalves, as the limpet kind, attach themselves
so firmly, by excluding the air, to rocks and stones,
that, unless quickly surprised, no force inferior to that
of breaking the shell can remove them. Several
fishes, and particularly the salmon kind, when about
to generate, leave the ocean, ascend the rivers, de-
posit their eggs in the sand, and, after making a
proper nest for their future progeny, return to the
ocean from whence they came. Others, as the her-
ring kind, though they seldom go up rivers, assemble
in myriads from all quarters, and approach the shores,
or ascend arms of the sea, for the purpose of continu-
ing the species. When that operation is performed,
they leave the coasts, and disperse in the ocean, till
the same instinctive impulse forces them to observe
similar conduct the next season.

10. The insect tribes, though comparatively di-
minutive, are not deficient in artifice and address.
With much art the spider spins his web. It serves
him the double purpose of a habitation, and of a ma-
chine for catching his food. With incredible patience
and perseverance, he lies in the center of his web for
days, and sometimes for weeks, before an ill-fated fly
happens to be entangled. One species of spider, which
is small, of a blackish color, and frequents cottages or
outhouses, I have known to live, during the whole
winter months, almost without the possibility of re-
ceiving any nourishment ; for, during that period, not
a fly of any kind could be discovered in the apart-
ment. If they had been in a torpid state, like some
other animals, the wonder of their surviving the want
of food so long would not have been so great. But

224 THE ANIMAL WOKLD.

in the severest weather, and through the whole course
of the winter, they were perfectly active and lively.
Neither did they seem to be in the least emaciated.
William Smellie. " The Philosophy of Natural History."

THE HOUSEKEEPER

The frugal snail, with forecast of repose,
Carries 'his house with him where'er he goes;
Peeps out, — and if there comes a shower of rain,
Retreats to his small domicile again.
Touch but a tip of him, a horn, — 'tis well, —
He curls up in his sanctuary shell.
He's his own landlord, his own tenant; stay
Long as he will, he dreads no Quarter Day.
Himself he boards and lodges; both invites
And feasts himself; sleeps with himself o' nights.
He spares the upholsterer trouble to procure
Chattels; himself is his own furniture,
And his sole riches. Wheresoe'er he roam, —
Knock when you will, — he's sure to be at home.

Charles Lamb.

THE TASK OF CLASSIFICATION. 225

THE TASK OF CLASSIFICATION.

1. I was one day talking with Professor Owen in
the Hunterian Museum, when a gentleman ap-
proached with a request to be informed respecting
the nature of a curious fossil which had been dug up
by one of his workmen. As he drew the fossil from
a small bag, and was about to hand it for examina-
tion, Owen quietly remarked, " That is the third
molar of the under jaw of an extinct species of rhi-
noceros." The astonishment of the gentleman at
this precise and confident description of the fossil,
before even it had quitted his hands, was doubtless
very great. I know that mine was, until the reflec-
tion occurred that if some one, little acquainted with
editions, had drawn a volume from his pocket, declar-
ing he had found it in an old chest, any bibliophile
would have been able to say at a glance, " That is an
Elzevir; " or, " That is one of the Tauchnitz classics,
stereotyped at Leipzig." Owen is as familiar with
the aspect of the teeth of animals, living and extinct,
as a student is with the aspect of editions. Yet, be-
fore that knowledge could have been acquired, before
he could say thus confidently that the tooth belonged
to an extinct species of rhinoceros, the united labors
of thousands of diligent inquirers must have been
directed to the classification of animals. How could
he know that the rhinoceros was of that particular
species rather than another? and what is meant by
species? To trace the history of this confidence would
16

226 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

be to tell the long story of zoological investigation;
a story too long for narration here, though we may
pause a while to consider its difficulties.

2. To make a classical catalogue of the books in
the British Museum would be a gigantic task; but
imagine what that task would be if all the title-pages
and other external indications were destroyed! The
first attempts would necessarily be of a rough ap-
proximate kind, merely endeavoring to make a sort
of provisional order amid the chaos, after which suc-
ceeding labors might introduce better and better ar-
rangements. The books might first be grouped ac-
cording to size; but, having got them together, it
would soon be discovered that size was no indication
of their contents: quarto poems and duodecimo his-
tories, octavo grammars and folio dictionaries, would
immediately give warning that some other arrange-
ment was needed. Nor would it be better to sepa-
rate the books according to the languages in which
they were written. The presence or absence of " illus-
trations " would furnish no better guide, while the
bindings would soon be found to follow no rule. In-
deed, one by one, all the external characters would
prove unsatisfactory, and the laborers would finally
have to decide upon some internal characters. Hav-
ing read enough of each book to ascertain whether it
was poetry or prose — and, if poetry, whether dra-
matic, epic, lyric, or satiric; and if prose, whether his-
tory, philosophy, theology, philology, science, fic-
tion, or essay— a rough classification could be made;
but even then there would be many difficulties, such
as where to place a work on the philosophy of history

THE TASK OF CLASSIFICATION. 227

— or the history of science — or theology under the
guise of science — or essays on very different sub-
jects, while some works would defy classification.

3. Gigantic as this labor would be, it would be
trifling compared with the labor of classifying all the
animals now living (not to mention extinct species),
so that the place of any one might be securely and
rapidly determined; yet the persistent zeal and sa-
gacity of zoologists have done for the animal king-
dom what has not yet been done for the library of
the Museum, although the titles of the books are not
absent. It has been done by patient reading of the
contents — by anatomical investigation of the internal
structure of animals. Except on a basis of compara-
tive anatomy, there could have been no better a
classification of animals than a classification of books
according to size, language, binding, etc. An un-
scientific Pliny might group animals according to
their habitat; but when it was known that whales,
though living in the water and swimming like fishes,
were in reality constructed like air-breathing quadru-
peds — when it was known that animals differing so
widely as bees, birds, bats, and flying squirrels, or as
otters, seals and cuttlefish, lived together in the same
element, it became obvious that such a principle of
arrangement could lead to no practical result. Nor
would it suffice to class animals according to their
modes of feeding, since in all classes there are sam-
ples of each mode. Equally unsatisfactory would be
external form — the seal and the whale resembling
fishes, the worm resembling the eel, and the eel the
serpent.

228 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

4. Two things were necessary: first, that the
structure of various animals should be minutely
studied and described — which is equivalent to read-
ing the books to be classified; and, secondly, that
some artificial method should be devised of so ar-
ranging the immense mass of details as to enable them
to be remembered, and also to enable fresh discoveries
readily to find a place in the system. We may be
perfectly familiar with the contents of a book, yet
wholly at a loss where to place it. If we have to
catalogue Hegel's " Philosophy of History," for ex-
ample, it becomes a difficult question whether to place
it under the rubric of philosophy, or under that of
history. To decide this point, we must have some
system of classification.

5. In the attempts to construct a system, natural-
ists are commonly said to have followed two methods,
the artificial and the natural. The artificial method
seizes some one prominent characteristic, and groups
all the individuals together which agree in this one
respect. In Botany the artificial method classes plants
according to the organs of reproduction; but this has
been found so very imperfect that it has been aban-
doned, and the natural method has been substituted,
according to which the whole structure of the plant
determines its place. If flying were taken as the arti-
ficial basis for the grouping of some animals, we
should find insects and birds, bats and flying squirrels
grouped together; but the natural method taking into
consideration not one character, buf*all the essential
characters, finds that insects, birds, and bats differ pro-
foundly in their organization: the insect has wings,

THE TASK OP CLASSIFICATION. 229

but its wings are not formed like those of the bird,
nor are those of the bird formed like those of the
bat. The insect does not breathe by lungs, like the
bird and the bat; and the bird, although it has many
points in common with the bat, does not, like it, suckle
its young; and thus we may run over the characters
of each organization, and find that the three animals
belong to widely different groups.

6. It is 'to Linnasus that we are indebted for the
most ingenious and comprehensive of the many
schemes invented for the cataloguing of animal forms,
and modern attempts at classification are only im-
provements on the plan he laid down. First we may
notice his admirable invention of the double names.
It had been the custom to designate plants and animals
according to some name common to a large group,
to which was added a description more or less char-
acteristic. An idea may be formed of the necessity
of a reform by conceiving what a laborious and un-
certain task it would be if our friends spoke to us of
having seen a dog in the garden, and on our asking
what kind of a dog, instead of their saying " a terrier,
a bull-terrier, or a Skye-terrier," they were to attempt
a description of the dog. Something of this kind was
the labor of understanding the nature of an animal
from the vague description of it given by naturalists.
Linnaeus rebaptized the whole animal kingdom upon
one intelligible principle. He continued to employ
the name co mmon to each group, such as that of Felis
for the cats, wrnch became the generic name; and in
lieu of the description which was given of each dif-
ferent kind to indicate that it was a lion, a tiger, a

230 THB ANIMAL WORLD.

leopard, or a domestic cat, he affixed a specific name:
thus the animal bearing the description of a lion be-
came Felis leo; the tiger, Felis tigris; the leopard,
Felis leopardus; and our domestic friend, Felis catus.
These double names, as Vogt remarks, are like the
Christian- and sur-names by which we distinguish the
various members of one family ; and instead of speak-
ing of Tomkinson with the flabby face and Tomkin-
son with the square forehead, we simply say John
and William Tomkinson.

7. Linnaeus did more than this. He not only
fixed definite conceptions of species and genera, but
introduced those of orders and classes. Cuvier added
families to genera, and sub-kingdoms to classes. Thus
a scheme was elaborated by which the whole animal
kingdom was arranged in subordinate groups: the
sub-kingdoms were divided into classes, the classes into
orders, the orders into families, the families into gen-
era, the genera into species, and the species, into varie-
ties. The guiding principle of anatomical resem-
blance determined each of these divisions. Those
largest groups, which resemble each other only in
having what is called the typical character in common,
are brought together under the first head. Thus all
the groups which agree in possessing a backbone and
internal skeleton, although they differ widely in form,
structure, and habitat, do nevertheless resemble each
other more than they resemble the groups which have
no backbone. This great division having been formed,
it is seen to arrange itself in very obvious minor
divisions or classes — the mammalia, - birds, reptiles,
and fishes. All mammals resemble each other more

THE TASK OF CLASSIFICATION. 231

than they resemble -birds; all reptiles resemble each
other more than they resemble fishes (in spite of the
superficial resemblance between serpents and eels or
lampreys). Each class, again, falls into the minor
groups of orders, and on the same principles — the
monkeys being obviously distinguished from rodents,
and the carnivora from the ruminating animals; and
so of the rest. In each order there are generally fami-
lies, and the families fall into genera, which differ
from each other only in fewer and less important
characters. The genera include groups which have
still fewer differences, and are called species; and
these, again, include groups which have only minute
and unimportant differences of color, size, and the
like, and are called sub-species, or varieties.

8. Whoever looks at the immensity of the animal
kingdom, and observes how intelligibly and systemat-
ically it is arranged in these various divisions, will
admit that, however imperfect, the scheme is a mag-
nificent product of human ingenuity and labor. It is
not an arbitrary arrangement, like the grouping of the
stars in constellations; it expresses, though obscurely,
the real order of Nature. All true classification
should be to forms- what laws are to phenomena; the
one reducing varieties to systematic order, as the other
reduces phenomena to their relation of sequence.
Now if it be true that the classification expresses the
real order of Nature, and not simply the order which
we may find convenient, there will be something more
than mere resemblance indicated in the various
groups; or, rather let me say, this resemblance itself
is the consequence of some community in the things

232 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

compared, and will therefore be the mark of some
deeper cause. What is this cause? Mr. Darwin
holds that " propinquity of descent — the only known
cause of the similarity of organic beings — is the bond,
hidden as it is by various degrees of modification,
which is partially revealed to us by our classifica-
tions " — that the characters which naturalists con-
sider as showing true affinity between any two or more
species are those which have been inherited from a
common parent, and in so far all true classification is
genealogical ; that community of descent is the hidden
bond which naturalists have been unconsciously seek-
ing, and not some unknown plan of creation, or the
enunciation of general propositions, and the mere
putting together and separating objects more or less
alike.

George Henry Lewes, " Studies of Animal Life."

THE DISTKIBUTION OF ANIMALS.

1. Animals are distributed over the globe ac-
cording to definite laws, and with remarkable regular-
ity. Each of the three great provinces, Earth, Air,
and Water, as also every continent, contains repre-
sentatives of all the classes; but the various classes
are unequally represented. Every great climatal
region contains some species not found elsewhere, to
the exclusion of some other forms. Every grand
division of the globe, whether of land or sea, each

THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 233

zone of climate and altitude, has its own fauna. And,
in spite of the many cases tending to disperse animals
beyond their natural limits, each country preserves
its peculiar zoological physiognomy.

2. The space occupied by the different groups of
animals is inversely as the size of the individuals.
Compare the coral and elephant. Fauna now occu-
pying a separate area is closely allied to the fauna
which existed in geologic times. Thus, Australia has
always been the home of Marsupials, and South
America of Edentates. It is a general rule that groups
of distinct species are circumscribed within definite,
and often narrow, limits. Man is the only cosmo-
politan; yet even he comprises several marked races,
whose distribution corresponds with the great zoo-
logical regions. The natives of Australia are as gro-
tesque as the animals. Certain brutes likewise have
a great range: thus, the puma ranges from Canada
to Patagonia ; the musk-rat, from the Arctic Ocean to
Florida; the ermine, from Behring Strait to the
Himalayas; and the hippopotamus, from the Mle and
Niger to the Orange River. Frequently species of
the same genus, living side by side, are widely differ-
ent, while there is a close resemblance between forms
which are antipodes. The mud-eel of South Carolina
and axolotl of Mexico have their connecting links in
Japan and Austria. The American tapir has its mate
in Sumatra; the llama is related to the camel, and
the opossum to the kangaroo.

3. The chief causes modifying distribution are
temperature, topography, ocean and wind currents,
humidity, and light. To these may be added the

234 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

fact that animals are ever intruding on each other's
spheres of existence. High mountain-ranges, wide
deserts, and cold currents in the ocean are impassable
barriers to the migrations of most species. Thus,
river-fish on opposite sides of the Andes differ widely,
and the cold Peruvian current prevents the growth
of coral at the Galapagos Islands. So a broad river,
like the Amazon, or a deep, narrow channel in the
sea, is an effectual barrier to some tribes. Thus,
Borneo belongs to the Indian region, while Celebes,
though but a few miles distant, is Australian in its
life. The faunas of North America, on the east coast,
west coast, and the open plains between, are very
different. Animals dwelling at high elevations re-
semble those of colder latitudes. The same species
of insects are found on Mount Washington, and in
Labrador and Greenland. The range does not de-
pend upon the powers of locomotion. The oyster
extends from Halifax to Charleston, and the snapping-
turtle from Canada to the equator; while many quad-
rupeds and birds have narrow habitats. The distri-
bution of any group is qualified by the nature of the
food. Carnivores have a wider range than herbivores.
Life diminishes as we depart from the equator, north
or south, and likewise as we descend or ascend from
the level of the sea.

4. The zones of geography have been divided by
zoologists into narrower provinces. Five vertical
regions in the sea have been recognized : the Littoral,
extending between tide-marks; -the Laminarian, from
low water to fifteen fathoms; the Coralline, from fif-
teen to twenty fathoms; the deep-sea Coral, from

THE DISTRIBUTION OP ANIMALS. 235

fifty to one hundred fathoms; and the Bathybian,
from one hundred fathoms down. Every marine spe-
cies has its own limits of depth. It would be quite
as difficult, said Agassiz, for a fish or a mollusk to cross
from the coast of Europe to the coast of America as
for a reindeer to pass from the Arctic to the Antarctic
regions across the torrid zone. Marine animals con-
gregate mainly along the coasts of continents and on
soundings. The meeting-place of two maritime cur-
rents of different temperatures, as on the Banks of
Newfoundland, favors the development of a great
diversity of fishes. Every great province of the ocean
contains some representatives of all the sub-kingdoms. .
Deep-sea life is diversified, though comparatively
sparse. Examples of all the five invertebrate divi-
sions were found in the Bay of Biscay, at the depth of
2,435 fathoms. Distribution in the sea is influenced
by the temperature and composition of the water,
and the character of the bottom. The depth acts in-
directly by modifying the temperature. Northern
animals approach nearer to the equator in the sea
than on the land, on account of cold currents. The
heavy aquatic mammals, as whales, walruses, seals,
and porpoises, are mainly polar.

5. Life in. the polar regions is characterized by-
great uniformity, the species being few in number,
though the number of individuals is immense. The
same animals inhabit the Arctic portions of the three
continents; while the Antarctic ends of the conti-
nents, Australia, Cape- of Good Hope, and Cape
Horn exhibit strong contrasts. Those three conti-
nental peninsulas are, zoologically, separate worlds.

236 THE ANIMAL WOULD.

In fact, the whole southern hemisphere is peculiar.
Its fauna is antique. Australia possesses a strange
mixture of the old and new. South America, with
newer mammals, has older reptiles; while Africa has
a rich vertebrate life, with a striking uniformity in
its distribution. In the tropics, diversity is the law.
Life is more varied and crowded than elsewhere,
and attains its highest development. The New- World
fauna is old-fashioned, and inferior in rank and size,
compared with those of the eastern continents.

6. As a rule, the more isolated a region, the
greater the variety. Oceanic islands have compara-
tively few species, but a large proportion of endemic
or peculiar forms. Batrachians are generally absent,
and there are no indigenous terrestrial mammals.
The productions are related to those of the nearest
continent. When an island, as Britain, is separated
from the main-land by a shallow channel, the mam-
malian life is the same on both sides. Protozoans,
Gcelenterates, and Echinoderms are limited to the
waters, and nearly all are marine. Sponges are most-
ly obtained from the Grecian Archipelago and the Ba-
hamas. Corals abound throughout the Indian Ocean
and Polynesia, east coast of Africa, Red Sea and
Persian Gulf, West Indies and around Florida. True
crinoids are found only in the Caribbean Sea and on
the coast of Norway. The other Echinoderms abound
in almost' every sea, the star-fishes chiefly along the
shore, the sea-urchins in the Laminarian zone, and
the sea-slugs around coral-reefs.

7. Mollusks have a world-wide distribution over
land and sea. The land forms are restricted by cli-

THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 237

mate and food, the marine by shallows or depths, by
cold currents, by a sandy, gravelly or mud bottom.
Living Brachiopods, though few in number, occur
in tropical, temperate, and Arctic seas, and from the
shore to the greatest depths. The rest of the bivalves
are also found on every coast and in every climate,
as well as in rivers and lakes, but do not flourish at
the depth of much more than two hundred fathoms.
The fresh-water mussels are more numerous in the
United States than in Europe, and west of the Alle-
ghanies than east. The sea-shells along the Pacific
coast of America are unlike those of the Atlantic,
and are arranged in five distinct groups — Aleutian,
Californian, Panamic, Peruvian, and Magellanic.
On the Atlantic coast, Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras
separate distinct provinces. The Old World and
America have no species in common, except a few
in the extreme north.

8. The limits of insects are determined by tem-
perature and vegetation, by oceans and mountains.
There is an insect-fauna for each continent, and zone,
and altitude. The insects near the snow-line on the
sides of mountains in the temperate region are simi-
lar to those in polar lands. The insects on our Pacific
slope resemble those of Europe, while those near the
Atlantic coast are more like those of Asia. Not half
a dozen insects live in the sea.

9. The distribution of fishes is bounded by nar-
rower limits than that of other animals. A few tribes
may be called cosmopolitan, as the sharks and her-
rings; but the, species are local. Size does not appear
to bear any relation to latitude. The marine forms

238 THE ANIMAL WORLD.

are three times as numerous as the fresh-water. The
migratory fishes of the northern hemisphere pass to
a more southern region in the spring, while birds mi-
grate in the autumn.

10. Living reptiles form but a fragment of the
immense number which prevailed in the Middle Ages
of Geology. Being less under the influence of man,
they have not been forced from their original habi-
tats. None are Arctic. America is the most favored
spot for frogs and salamanders, and India for snakes.
Australia has no batrachians, and two-thirds of its
snakes are venomous. In the United States only 22
out of 176 are venomous. Frogs, snakes, and lizards
occur at elevations of over 15,000 feet. Crocodiles,
and most lizards and turtles, are tropical.

11. Swimming birds, which constitute about one-
fourteenth of the entire class, form one-half of the
whole number in Greenland. As we approach the
tropics, the variety and number of land birds increase.
Those of the torrid zone are noted for their brilliant
plumage, and the temperate forms for their more
sober hues, but sweeter voices. India and South
America are the richest regions. Birds with rudi-
mentary wings, as penguins and ostriches, prevail in
the southern hemisphere. Hummers, tanagers, ori-
oles, and toucans are restricted to the New World.
Parrots are found in every continent, except Europe;
and woodpeckers occur everywhere, save in Aus-
tralia.

12. The vast majority of mammals are terrestrial;
but cetaceans and seals take to the sea, otters and
beavers delight in lakes and rivers, and moles are

THE TIGER. 239

subterranean. As of birds, the aquatic species abound
in the polar regions. Marsupials inhabit two widely
separated areas — America and Australia. In the lat-
ter continent, they constitute three-fourths of the
fauna; while edentates, ruminants, horses, elephants,
hogs, squirrels, moles, carnivores, monkeys, and apes
are wanting. Excepting a few species in South Africa
and South Asia, edentates are confined to tropical
South America. The equine family is indigenous to
South and East Africa and Southern Asia. In North
America, rodents form about one-half the number of
mammals; they are entirely wanting in Madagascar.
Ruminants are sparingly represented in America.
Carnivores flourish in every zone and continent. The
prehensile-tailed monkeys are strictly South Ameri-
can; while the anthropoid apes belong to the west
coast of Africa, and to Borneo and Sumatra. Both
monkeys and apes are most abundant near the equa-
tor; in fact, their range is limited by the distribution
of palms.

James Orton, " Comparative Zoology."

THE TIGEE.

Tigek! Tiger! burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

240 THE ANTMAL WORLD.

2. In what distant deeps or skies
Burned the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

3. And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thine heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?

4. What the hammer, what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

5. When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?

Did He, who made the Lamb, make thee!

6. Tiger! Tiger! burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

William Blake.

the END.